Formerly IrishOtter49, perhaps we can say that the cream of the Irish came to the US, where they flourish. The same for the Scots and the English, among whom were my ancestors.
Just let us know what your new name is. 🙂
Will do, Kate.
Not formerly yet. Still pondering. . . .
@IrishOtter49: Maybe be not so quick to judge the entire population of the island, by what you read in the news about some of them? You know how unreliable both our news and foreign news is about the United States, maybe give the Irish the benefit of the doubt? Just a thought.
@IrishOtter49:
I don’t worry a lot about Ireland being asshole, particularly historic Ireland. Now that Rosie O’Donnell has moved there, however, perhaps.
Ahhh so — now that you mention it. . . Yep. Rosie makes your case.
I’ve started a new post series: Technology in 1925, with ‘technology’ being broadly defined. The posts will discuss social & economic impact as well as the technologies per se. First post of the series, focusing of communications & entertainment, is now up:
The Irish political class is awful. Where I’d fault the Irish public is having no response to that awfulness. (Also the social and cultural breakdown of the last 30 years; what was once a conscientious society is now a quite slatternly society).
==
As for Rosie O’Donnell, I don’t think the decisions of the social workers who allocated to her one child after another could survive an impartial audit. Other than John Derbyshire, I’m not aware of anyone who has called attention to the sort of favoritism from which she seems to have benefited.
==
NB, what’s known publicly of Rosie O’Donnell suggests she’s a dreadful human being. I’d think more of the Irish if they gave her the cold shoulder.
I will grudgingly give Rosie O’Donnell at least a modicum of credit for actually following through. Too often leftwing celebrities have been known for making promises at the top of their lungs to leave America if “X” happens or “Y” is elected, only to not actually do so when the event comes to pass. Having great or even good wealth does afford such high profile celebrities the advantage of being able to follow through on such promises, but despite this far too often they do not.
Yes Irish Otter, as a Plastic Irishman having lived there several years and a graduate of Trinity I agree with your sentiments. The elites have lost their moorings. But do not despair. In the outback there remain a few who have not yet succumbed to the Borg
Dave cullen the cultural critic who had a podcast on youtube who became aware of the lockdowns and was demonetized and had to turn to rumble and other platforms like odyssee to carry his message, was the canary about this
European countries voluntarily surrendering to invading Muslim hordes cannot honestly be considered allies. Hence,
I’m judging Ireland and the Irish by my personal experiences (there are many) of the country, and also by the country’s official policies toward Israel, by its increasingly authoritarian government (including suppression of free speech and dissent), rampant and manifest hostility to Christianity (especially the Catholocism) . . . and so forth.
Re Art Deco: “The Irish political class is awful. Where I’d fault the Irish public is having no response to that awfulness. (Also the social and cultural breakdown of the last 30 years; what was once a conscientious society is now a quite slatternly society).”
That is basically the definition of “asshole.”
Ireland is becoming a 1984-ish Marxian [sic] police state. As well, in my experience anti-American sentiment has always be strong among the educated Irish, but now it seems to have spread to encompass the general populace.
I have fond memories of West Ireland — that’s where I learned to love border collies. But that Ireland is fading into history.
Here is the official government website for DOGE, for the folks that haven’t already accessed it.
According to the Savings tab, total savings is $105 billion.
The Irish parliament has 174 seats in it. Dissenters won six seats in 2024. The Irish outback has a ways to go to reclaim the republic.
IrishOtter:
You probably know a LOT more about this than I do, but I wouldn’t say that Ireland covered itself in glory during WWII, either.
IrishOtter – I’ll trade you your Irish antisemites for my self-hating cosmopolitan progressive Jewraelis…
Astoundingly there are still Leftie Jews who still think we can live in peace with Hamas – who still think that the problem is those nasty land-grabbing settlers… at the funerals of hostages their families vowed to continue their (failed and deadly) efforts at “coexistence”.
Now that the Jews have been gathered again into their homeland, we can see how many of them really are idiots. Tarnishes the brand, but it’s the truth.
Yes devalera (is it a coincidence he was played by alan rickman in the michael collins film) the role of the ira during the war (the devlin character in the eagle film) was not a fiction
I can’t tell you how many times I’d be quietly enjoying a beer in an Irish pub, minding my own business and all, only to be accosted by some educated but stupid belligerent big-mouth self-righteous self-regarding know-it-all Irishman bent on lecturing me at great length about the flaws and evils of America and Americans.
IrishOtter49 wrote, “I’m seriously contemplating changing my online moniker,…”
@IrishOtter49:I can’t tell you how many times I’d be quietly enjoying a beer in an Irish pub, minding my own business and all, only to be accosted by some educated but stupid belligerent big-mouth self-righteous self-regarding know-it-all Irishman bent on lecturing me at great length about the flaws and evils of America and Americans.
My sister had the same experience in Ireland. I’ve never been to Ireland but I have not had that experience in the countries I have been to.
Now, people from other countries that I would meet socially IN America would sometimes give me that lecture.
neo:
You are correct. I know the subject well, as you surmised.
Author Mark Halperin’s very pointed critique of Sweden comes to mind. Sweden, he observed, grew fat and prosperous on trade with Nazi Germany during WW2, only to emerge into the postwar period to lecture the rest of the world on morality.
The same could be said for Ireland.
Ben David:
Indeed. “Tarnishing the brand” is an apt description. I know how you feel and I am very sympathetic. The Irish have tarnished their own brand, and I don’t think there’s anything they can or will do to rectify the situation. In fact I don’t think that Ireland will be Ireland much longer.
Remembering that great scene in The Quiet Man: Sean Thornton and Squire Danaher take a timeout from fighting each other to have a beer together in the local pub. They fall to reminiscing about happier times. But shortly Danaher shakes his head and says, sadly and wistfully: “Ah, sure, the old days are gone forever.”
And the fight resumes.
That’s Ireland. I remain proud of my Irish heritage and glad of it. But, sure, the old days are gone forever.
Niketas Choniates:
The Irish love to talk, both for better and ill. They have, it seems, very few opinions that they won’t share, unbidden, with you. They can’t help themselves. That can be a good thing. I recall the long and very pleasant conversations I would have with shepherds in the fields of Mayo, or Clare, or Galway, gabbing amiably while I watched their border collies working the sheep. The subjects under discussion revolved around the weather, dogs, the weather, the objectionable behavior and character of the people in the next county over, the weather, the objectionable behavior and character of his wife’s family, and . . . the weather. Also dogs. There was much sly humor and laughter. There was talk of poetry and the quoting of Yeats. They were shepherds and, yes, they knew enough about the poetry of Yeats to quote him!
I don’t recall ever talking politics with these gentlemen. When, after asking me where in America I was from and I told them Chicago, roughly half the time (at least) they would tell me 1) they had family in Chicago; or, 2) they had themselves lived worked in Chicago for X number of years; or, 3) both. One told me, “I liked Chicago. I’ll say this about the city: it always gave me a meal and a bed to sleep in.” If you know the Irish, you know that’s very high praise indeed.
Sweden, he observed, grew fat and prosperous on trade with Nazi Germany during WW2, only to emerge into the postwar period to lecture the rest of the world on morality.
==
The change in per capita product of Europe’s neutral countries (1945 compared with 1939, courtesy the Maddison Project)
==
Switzerland: -10%
Sweden: -2%
Ireland: -1%
Portugal: +3%
Spain: +16%
==
They were not occupied by any foreign power and they were not battlefields so retained their physical capital and manpower. I’m not seeing anyone making off like bandits here. Spain already had severe losses in physical and human capital during the period running from 1936 to 1939 so benefited some from reconstruction and the transfer of resources from military uses to ordinary uses.
==
(I am recalling Hendrick Hertzberg offering a printed eulogy for Olaf Palme in 1986. Hertzberg fancied it was lauditory, but it made Palme sound vaguely repellent).
Like Quebec a generation earlier, Ireland abandoned its conventional culture and embraced Eurodecadence. This includes hostility to countries which retain an authentic honor culture, like Israel.
There’s a really good novel about a WWII U-boat that is damaged and puts in at an island off the coast of Ireland to try to repair itself. All of the islanders tend to be sympathetic to the Germans for reasons of historical memory, except for one young woman who was born there but has been away at college and has some understanding of the true issues in this war. I reviewed it here:
Finally it’s official: Michael Mann and his crooked lawyers are absolute scum.
So where does Mark Steyn go to get his life and health back…?
@Art Deco: I’m not seeing anyone making off like bandits here.
Spain looks like a “dead cat bounce” to me, post-Civil War. Switzerland spent a lot of its efforts on trying to fortify itself. Even decommissioning those fortifications has been expensive.
David Foster,
I liked your 1925 tech piece. I have a book of old advertising. Some of my favorites:
1906 Warner Auto-Meter (speedometer)
“You think you are going 8 miles an hour but the Policeman’s stop watch says 15.”
1908 Remington Typewriter with Wahl Adding and Subtracting Attachment
“It Writes It Adds It Subtracts”
1898 Eastman Kodak Folding Pocket Kodak
“Holidays are Kodak Days”
1924 Thermiodyne Radio
“At Last! Six Tubes With One Control”
I do recall that one side o of the wallenbergers did business with germany, while the most famous did not, the Swiss well they held the money, from the Jewish depositers, much of this ended up in the stability fund, which many suspect ended up funding covert operations for the US Govt and perhaps the UK,
two of the countries on that list, ireland and spain, along with argentina, were the residencies of otto Skorzeny, who is worthy of a netflix series on his own, he worked with other german veterans in Egypt, allegedly worked as a double agent with Mossad, while contacting other agents in that country as well as training the predecessors of the IRA provos and Fatah, he wasn’t the only wanderer of this type,
the late Stieg Larsson, the noir novelist, deals in the dirty laundry of magnates not entirely unlike the Wallenbergs, in his first novel, in his view Sweden wasn’t progressive enough,
I’m 1/4 Irish on my father’s side and 1/2 Scots-Irish on my mother’s. I’m not sure how the math works out, but I’ve got some Irish in me.
I visited London and Dublin in 1998. In London I couldn’t get a conversation going to save my life. In Dublin people wouldn’t stop talking to me — even a deaf boy on DART was spelling words out to me on a board.
In 1998 I didn’t encounter any anti-Americanism, but that was then. My Irish friend told me that the Irish are friendly to strangers. They tend to save their knives for their countrymen.
___________________________________
Begrudgery: (Ireland) resentment or envy of the success of a peer; criticism of ostentatious display of success.
There is something unfortunate in the Irish character.
One of my favorite Swedish stories has to do with a short-lived Electrolux vacuum-cleaner ad, plastered on a huge billboard in a major city in Western Canada (a true story):
Under a photo of the glorious product (with its Electrolux logo) appeared the memorable pitch:
“This machine really sucks”
(Would seem that something got lost in translation….)
The ad was gone within a week.
I’d be amused to know who has been bankrolling Michael Mann’s lawyers. Reid Hoffman, perhaps?
like the apocryphal story of trying to sell Chevy’s in Latin America, Nova ‘it doesn’t go’
I assume Steyer, Soros, that dodgy other Swiss magnate, Gyss, since it has been going on since 2010, when Steyn made a second hand comment,
Chases Eagles…the typewriter with the adding/subracting attachment is interesting. I found more information about it here:
It sounds like it was a very early version of a book-keeping machine…Grok explains thsse devices as follows:
” Companies like Burroughs, National Cash Register (NCR), and Remington Rand developed specialized bookkeeping machines in the 1920s and 1930s. These devices combined adding machine functionality with typewriters, allowing simultaneous calculation and ledger entry. NCR’s “Class 2000″ machines, for example, could handle multiple accounts and print detailed reports.”
I’ll be discussing calculating and file-management devices, 1920s-style, in the third post of my series (the second post will be about transportation).
RE: What is China’s real population?
Chinese commenter Lei thinks it’s far less than the claimed 1.4 billion, and is actually likely to be many hundreds of millions less, perhaps around 900 million or even less. One of the key factors producing this enormous reduction in population has been Covid, now followed by the current, apparently very deadly epidemic of what has been termed “bird flu” sweeping China.
This link also includes many short videos from people from areas all over China, noticing and talking about how the formerly crowded and bustling lanes, streets, subways, restaurants, malls, apartments, shopping districts, individual shops in both major and lesser cities, and even some rural villages are pretty devoid of people, and asking the same question, where is everybody? *
David Foster, looking forward to both. I have a lot of transportation history in my library and I collect technical manuals (PDF or otherwise) for teletype, punch card data processing and pre internet computing. I also have an unfinished PDP-6 simulator project that I have been thinking about using AI* to help finish the programming otherwise it has been languishing for years.
* inspired to do so by the commentariat here
@Snow on Pine:Chinese commenter Lei thinks it’s far less than the claimed 1.4 billion, and is actually likely to be many hundreds of millions less, perhaps around 900 million or even less. One of the key factors producing this enormous reduction in population has been Covid, now followed by the current, apparently very deadly epidemic of what has been termed “bird flu” sweeping China.
China could not have 500 million people die in 5 years and possibly keep that secret: every two people would be burying the third one…. If their population really is as low as 900 million, the famine in the 1950s and the one-child policy would be the primary drivers along with official exaggerations of the population over many years.
In other words, it could only be true if they’d been lying about their population for years, which they certainly could have been.
Niketas Choniates–
Lai is not the only China observer who has been reporting–some videos included–that, over the last several years, Chinese coffin makers and crematories have been overwhelmed–working 24/7, with crowds of people pictured, waiting on the roads to these crematories, to send their coffins in for cremation, or, to pickup the resultant ashes, and that the authorities–who have very tight control over information, have been trying to make sure that this fact and the true extent of deaths from COVID and now, “bird flu,” do not become widely known.
A thorough intelligence analysis– Chinese “grain of sand” stye–trying to determine the true extent of population loss in China, would piece together all sorts of disparate pieces of information.
A task which, I am sure, some of our three letter agencies have been and are undertaking.
Thus, If I remember correctly, there was one report I saw of an analysis done, via satellite images, of Wuhan, and the traffic volume at this location, which showed a remarkable decrease in traffic i.e. likely/perhaps a lot fewer people around to drive.
P.S. According to various commenters and experts on demographics China is already in the midst of an irreversible, natural population decline, and epidemics, it would seem likely, could make that downward slide even more precipitous.
It seems to me that, as well, the videos, linked to above, of Chinese from all areas of China, noticing the apparently massive decrease in the number of people on the streets, at public venues, and in restaurants and shops–and feeling disturbed and puzzled enough to post videos about this–is worth paying attention to, and giving a fair amount of credence.
@Snow on Pine:Lai is not the only China observer who has been reporting–some videos included–that, over the last several years, Chinese coffin makers and crematories have been overwhelmed–working 24/7
While that could be–none of my relatives in China now or who have visited there since 2020 saw any of it–it does not add up to 500 million people. Or 100 million. That is an enormous logistical challenge, literally visible from space.
It’s one thing to say more people are dead than has been acknowledged. It is a very different thing to say that many millions of people are dead and it’s somehow being hidden.
I plan to be in China in December and I’ll keep an eye out.
It seems to me that, as well, the videos, linked to above, of Chinese from all areas of China, noticing the apparently massive decrease in the number of people on the streets, at public venues, and in restaurants and shops, is worth paying attention to, and giving some credence.
I could make such videos about the United States and make the case it’s depopulated too. You’re not actually getting an unbiased survey of everybody and every place in China. You could never watch that many videos.
Our legacy media does this kind of crap all the time, shows a video of something somewhere and says it’s typical of everywhere when it’s not.
European countries voluntarily surrendering to invading Muslim hordes cannot honestly be considered allies. Hence,
The Vance Doctrine
It has me in the first half, and then it became absolutely retarded, delving into full throated Kremlin apologia and at least a tinge of 9/11 trutherism (without specifying what “facts” related to that are so pertinent, unlike the other cases).
As bad as the EU and Ukraine can and have been, they are not more totalitarian than Russia is. Far from it. The author rightfully complains about Chinese “fishing fleets” acting as pirates and bullies but ignores who the PRC’s major Allie’s are, and complains about EU authoritarianism while ignoring how while the Kremlin can’t be blamed for all of it it and its Allies have helped corrode it by well laced bribes (which is one reason the EU has been so unserious about Ukraine). And then it goes so far as to claim that a Russian victory would not harm America’s fundamental interests. Because apparently the author thinks we are so daft we cannot trace dirty money going to American Greens or figure out who communist Venezuela and Cuba’s major patrons are.
China has social credit, the most totalitarian instrument ever, you don’t go along, you don’t eat you can’t pay rent,
they gaslit us with the Covid, into the lockdowns which were ruinous to social health and stability, why did people go along well in part since 1980, constructivist educational templates, devised in the Soviet Union, were introduced into the class rooms, my generation was probably the first to dodge that bullet, but the damage was done in the subsequent eras,
9/11 denialism, I don’t grant them the truth label, is possibly the stupidest thing, but probably because Western Intelligence was unwilling to reveal much O of what they knew in the months afterward, like the Bayoumi tape of him meeting with hijackers in London, Tony Blair didn’t know about this, to cite one example,
Of course it doesn’t lend itself to a convenient sound bite, but denial is a long and dangerous river, and nearly 25 years after the Afghan expedition started, can you tell me who won, it doesn’t appear to be us, change my mind about us,
the way effendi khalil is treated, vs say Yoxley, nee Robinson, even the most avowedly pro West party, Reform seems to be getting a little wobbly, in some corners,
who seems to be a real present danger to the people of the West,
I agree, the PRC has among the most totalitarian systems devised in the modern era, and the systematic corruption, oppression, and tyranny with which COVID and a host of other things were damning. The West is in deep trouble, but it can absolutely get worse. I imagine the rape gangs of Rotherham would only dream of the sort of power and license that Karydov and his Wahhabis can and do organize in not just Chechnya and Dagestan but throughout Russia.
I agree re: 9/11 denialism, and how often the attempts to deny and censor the truth by the Powers that Be bred justifiable suspicion of them (worse when the truth was outright denied like with COVID), and what is more galling is how often this served no good purpose even from those censoring.
As for who won Afghanistan, the Taliban did, though at least Al Qaeda and Osama lost. Which will hopefully meant the Taliban’s ability to sponsor terrorism in our home will hurt.
Reform’s buckling in part due to the two faced and inconsistent nature of Farage, who sadly is among the better figures in the West.
However, let’s not kid ourselves. Putin and I’d argue even the PRC are far from the greatest single threats to the West, but they cooperate handily with many that are. For all the talk about Putin This and Trump That, who do people think the Kremlin financed more when it came to energy policy? Ukraine is many things, but prepared to send warships out to assist the PRC in some kind of criminal bluff in the Pacific or sponsor Hezbollah’s Venezuelan branch are not some of them.
Ignoring the threat the Kremlin poses and how its interests are mutually exclusive with many of ours just because it is far from the worst is a mistake. That doesn’t necessarily believe I think we need to prioritize it, especially in Current Year. But it does mean we need to be wary.
RE: The “Mandate of Heaven”
In the traditional Chinese dynastic cycle, the current dynasty starts to experience increasing problems and disorder—natural disasters, famine, popular uprisings, etc.— and it eventually falls, it’s leader—the Emperor—seen as having “lost the Mandate of Heaven,” and a new leader and dynasty rises to rule China.
It’s said that Xi is very superstitious, and I’m wondering—in view of all of the natural disasters, outbreaks of disease, economic decline, and growing public discontent and demonstrations I am seeing being reported — if Xi isn’t worried that he is losing that Mandate.
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This isn’t a world-historical issue, but something I’d like to get off my chest.
I’m seriously contemplating changing my online moniker, ditching IrishOtter49.
Reason: I no longer wish to associate myself with my ancestral homeland and people.
Ireland and the Irish have always been problematic (as, admittedly, have I), and paradoxically that was part of their charm. But no more.
Ireland is asshole and so are the Irish, sure. Begone with youse.
We might need a st patrick
https://x.com/MarkJCarney/status/1899583228060537166
Maybe combat moose to the rescue
New zealand seems to have moved away from Mordor to some degree
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2025/03/12/left-wing-punished-in-surprise-greenland-election-result-next-govt-may-be-more-trump-friendly/
Formerly IrishOtter49, perhaps we can say that the cream of the Irish came to the US, where they flourish. The same for the Scots and the English, among whom were my ancestors.
Just let us know what your new name is. 🙂
Will do, Kate.
Not formerly yet. Still pondering. . . .
@IrishOtter49: Maybe be not so quick to judge the entire population of the island, by what you read in the news about some of them? You know how unreliable both our news and foreign news is about the United States, maybe give the Irish the benefit of the doubt? Just a thought.
@IrishOtter49:
I don’t worry a lot about Ireland being asshole, particularly historic Ireland. Now that Rosie O’Donnell has moved there, however, perhaps.
Ahhh so — now that you mention it. . . Yep. Rosie makes your case.
I’ve started a new post series: Technology in 1925, with ‘technology’ being broadly defined. The posts will discuss social & economic impact as well as the technologies per se. First post of the series, focusing of communications & entertainment, is now up:
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/73290.html
The Irish political class is awful. Where I’d fault the Irish public is having no response to that awfulness. (Also the social and cultural breakdown of the last 30 years; what was once a conscientious society is now a quite slatternly society).
==
As for Rosie O’Donnell, I don’t think the decisions of the social workers who allocated to her one child after another could survive an impartial audit. Other than John Derbyshire, I’m not aware of anyone who has called attention to the sort of favoritism from which she seems to have benefited.
==
NB, what’s known publicly of Rosie O’Donnell suggests she’s a dreadful human being. I’d think more of the Irish if they gave her the cold shoulder.
I will grudgingly give Rosie O’Donnell at least a modicum of credit for actually following through. Too often leftwing celebrities have been known for making promises at the top of their lungs to leave America if “X” happens or “Y” is elected, only to not actually do so when the event comes to pass. Having great or even good wealth does afford such high profile celebrities the advantage of being able to follow through on such promises, but despite this far too often they do not.
Yes Irish Otter, as a Plastic Irishman having lived there several years and a graduate of Trinity I agree with your sentiments. The elites have lost their moorings. But do not despair. In the outback there remain a few who have not yet succumbed to the Borg
The uniparty is strong over there as weve discussed before
https://redstate.com/sister-toldjah/2025/03/12/msnbc-host-on-the-violence-at-tesla-dealerships-n2186572
Dave cullen the cultural critic who had a podcast on youtube who became aware of the lockdowns and was demonetized and had to turn to rumble and other platforms like odyssee to carry his message, was the canary about this
European countries voluntarily surrendering to invading Muslim hordes cannot honestly be considered allies. Hence,
The Vance Doctrine
NC:
I’m judging Ireland and the Irish by my personal experiences (there are many) of the country, and also by the country’s official policies toward Israel, by its increasingly authoritarian government (including suppression of free speech and dissent), rampant and manifest hostility to Christianity (especially the Catholocism) . . . and so forth.
Re Art Deco: “The Irish political class is awful. Where I’d fault the Irish public is having no response to that awfulness. (Also the social and cultural breakdown of the last 30 years; what was once a conscientious society is now a quite slatternly society).”
That is basically the definition of “asshole.”
Ireland is becoming a 1984-ish Marxian [sic] police state. As well, in my experience anti-American sentiment has always be strong among the educated Irish, but now it seems to have spread to encompass the general populace.
I have fond memories of West Ireland — that’s where I learned to love border collies. But that Ireland is fading into history.
Here is the official government website for DOGE, for the folks that haven’t already accessed it.
https://doge.gov/
According to the Savings tab, total savings is $105 billion.
The Irish parliament has 174 seats in it. Dissenters won six seats in 2024. The Irish outback has a ways to go to reclaim the republic.
IrishOtter:
You probably know a LOT more about this than I do, but I wouldn’t say that Ireland covered itself in glory during WWII, either.
IrishOtter – I’ll trade you your Irish antisemites for my self-hating cosmopolitan progressive Jewraelis…
Astoundingly there are still Leftie Jews who still think we can live in peace with Hamas – who still think that the problem is those nasty land-grabbing settlers… at the funerals of hostages their families vowed to continue their (failed and deadly) efforts at “coexistence”.
Now that the Jews have been gathered again into their homeland, we can see how many of them really are idiots. Tarnishes the brand, but it’s the truth.
https://x.com/FBIDirectorKash/status/1899871370353283373
Yes devalera (is it a coincidence he was played by alan rickman in the michael collins film) the role of the ira during the war (the devlin character in the eagle film) was not a fiction
Oh well. We’ll always have Peggy.
==
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNs-16Tx0DY
I can’t tell you how many times I’d be quietly enjoying a beer in an Irish pub, minding my own business and all, only to be accosted by some educated but stupid belligerent big-mouth self-righteous self-regarding know-it-all Irishman bent on lecturing me at great length about the flaws and evils of America and Americans.
IrishOtter49 wrote, “I’m seriously contemplating changing my online moniker,…”
May I suggest, Guinness Float.
And, yes, it actually is a thing:
https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/guinness-float/
@IrishOtter49:I can’t tell you how many times I’d be quietly enjoying a beer in an Irish pub, minding my own business and all, only to be accosted by some educated but stupid belligerent big-mouth self-righteous self-regarding know-it-all Irishman bent on lecturing me at great length about the flaws and evils of America and Americans.
My sister had the same experience in Ireland. I’ve never been to Ireland but I have not had that experience in the countries I have been to.
Now, people from other countries that I would meet socially IN America would sometimes give me that lecture.
neo:
You are correct. I know the subject well, as you surmised.
Author Mark Halperin’s very pointed critique of Sweden comes to mind. Sweden, he observed, grew fat and prosperous on trade with Nazi Germany during WW2, only to emerge into the postwar period to lecture the rest of the world on morality.
The same could be said for Ireland.
Ben David:
Indeed. “Tarnishing the brand” is an apt description. I know how you feel and I am very sympathetic. The Irish have tarnished their own brand, and I don’t think there’s anything they can or will do to rectify the situation. In fact I don’t think that Ireland will be Ireland much longer.
Remembering that great scene in The Quiet Man: Sean Thornton and Squire Danaher take a timeout from fighting each other to have a beer together in the local pub. They fall to reminiscing about happier times. But shortly Danaher shakes his head and says, sadly and wistfully: “Ah, sure, the old days are gone forever.”
And the fight resumes.
That’s Ireland. I remain proud of my Irish heritage and glad of it. But, sure, the old days are gone forever.
Niketas Choniates:
The Irish love to talk, both for better and ill. They have, it seems, very few opinions that they won’t share, unbidden, with you. They can’t help themselves. That can be a good thing. I recall the long and very pleasant conversations I would have with shepherds in the fields of Mayo, or Clare, or Galway, gabbing amiably while I watched their border collies working the sheep. The subjects under discussion revolved around the weather, dogs, the weather, the objectionable behavior and character of the people in the next county over, the weather, the objectionable behavior and character of his wife’s family, and . . . the weather. Also dogs. There was much sly humor and laughter. There was talk of poetry and the quoting of Yeats. They were shepherds and, yes, they knew enough about the poetry of Yeats to quote him!
I don’t recall ever talking politics with these gentlemen. When, after asking me where in America I was from and I told them Chicago, roughly half the time (at least) they would tell me 1) they had family in Chicago; or, 2) they had themselves lived worked in Chicago for X number of years; or, 3) both. One told me, “I liked Chicago. I’ll say this about the city: it always gave me a meal and a bed to sleep in.” If you know the Irish, you know that’s very high praise indeed.
Good times, good times.
Ah, there I go, getting sentimental.
About time
https://x.com/HansMahncke/status/1899872790209048909
Sweden, he observed, grew fat and prosperous on trade with Nazi Germany during WW2, only to emerge into the postwar period to lecture the rest of the world on morality.
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The change in per capita product of Europe’s neutral countries (1945 compared with 1939, courtesy the Maddison Project)
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Switzerland: -10%
Sweden: -2%
Ireland: -1%
Portugal: +3%
Spain: +16%
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They were not occupied by any foreign power and they were not battlefields so retained their physical capital and manpower. I’m not seeing anyone making off like bandits here. Spain already had severe losses in physical and human capital during the period running from 1936 to 1939 so benefited some from reconstruction and the transfer of resources from military uses to ordinary uses.
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(I am recalling Hendrick Hertzberg offering a printed eulogy for Olaf Palme in 1986. Hertzberg fancied it was lauditory, but it made Palme sound vaguely repellent).
Like Quebec a generation earlier, Ireland abandoned its conventional culture and embraced Eurodecadence. This includes hostility to countries which retain an authentic honor culture, like Israel.
There’s a really good novel about a WWII U-boat that is damaged and puts in at an island off the coast of Ireland to try to repair itself. All of the islanders tend to be sympathetic to the Germans for reasons of historical memory, except for one young woman who was born there but has been away at college and has some understanding of the true issues in this war. I reviewed it here:
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/44055.html
Miguel @4:45 pm
Yep. Amazing.
Here’s the ugly rundown from Powerline blog:
“MICHAEL MANN SANCTIONED FOR FALSE TESTIMONY, BAD FAITH”—
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2025/03/michael-mann-sanctioned-for-false-testimony-bad-faith.php
Finally it’s official: Michael Mann and his crooked lawyers are absolute scum.
So where does Mark Steyn go to get his life and health back…?
@Art Deco: I’m not seeing anyone making off like bandits here.
Spain looks like a “dead cat bounce” to me, post-Civil War. Switzerland spent a lot of its efforts on trying to fortify itself. Even decommissioning those fortifications has been expensive.
David Foster,
I liked your 1925 tech piece. I have a book of old advertising. Some of my favorites:
1906 Warner Auto-Meter (speedometer)
“You think you are going 8 miles an hour but the Policeman’s stop watch says 15.”
1908 Remington Typewriter with Wahl Adding and Subtracting Attachment
“It Writes It Adds It Subtracts”
1898 Eastman Kodak Folding Pocket Kodak
“Holidays are Kodak Days”
1924 Thermiodyne Radio
“At Last! Six Tubes With One Control”
I do recall that one side o of the wallenbergers did business with germany, while the most famous did not, the Swiss well they held the money, from the Jewish depositers, much of this ended up in the stability fund, which many suspect ended up funding covert operations for the US Govt and perhaps the UK,
two of the countries on that list, ireland and spain, along with argentina, were the residencies of otto Skorzeny, who is worthy of a netflix series on his own, he worked with other german veterans in Egypt, allegedly worked as a double agent with Mossad, while contacting other agents in that country as well as training the predecessors of the IRA provos and Fatah, he wasn’t the only wanderer of this type,
the late Stieg Larsson, the noir novelist, deals in the dirty laundry of magnates not entirely unlike the Wallenbergs, in his first novel, in his view Sweden wasn’t progressive enough,
I’m 1/4 Irish on my father’s side and 1/2 Scots-Irish on my mother’s. I’m not sure how the math works out, but I’ve got some Irish in me.
I visited London and Dublin in 1998. In London I couldn’t get a conversation going to save my life. In Dublin people wouldn’t stop talking to me — even a deaf boy on DART was spelling words out to me on a board.
In 1998 I didn’t encounter any anti-Americanism, but that was then. My Irish friend told me that the Irish are friendly to strangers. They tend to save their knives for their countrymen.
___________________________________
Begrudgery: (Ireland) resentment or envy of the success of a peer; criticism of ostentatious display of success.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/begrudgery
___________________________________
There is something unfortunate in the Irish character.
One of my favorite Swedish stories has to do with a short-lived Electrolux vacuum-cleaner ad, plastered on a huge billboard in a major city in Western Canada (a true story):
Under a photo of the glorious product (with its Electrolux logo) appeared the memorable pitch:
“This machine really sucks”
(Would seem that something got lost in translation….)
The ad was gone within a week.
I’d be amused to know who has been bankrolling Michael Mann’s lawyers. Reid Hoffman, perhaps?
like the apocryphal story of trying to sell Chevy’s in Latin America, Nova ‘it doesn’t go’
I assume Steyer, Soros, that dodgy other Swiss magnate, Gyss, since it has been going on since 2010, when Steyn made a second hand comment,
Chases Eagles…the typewriter with the adding/subracting attachment is interesting. I found more information about it here:
https://oztypewriter.blogspot.com/2014/04/john-conrades-wahl-and-remington-wahl.html
It sounds like it was a very early version of a book-keeping machine…Grok explains thsse devices as follows:
” Companies like Burroughs, National Cash Register (NCR), and Remington Rand developed specialized bookkeeping machines in the 1920s and 1930s. These devices combined adding machine functionality with typewriters, allowing simultaneous calculation and ledger entry. NCR’s “Class 2000″ machines, for example, could handle multiple accounts and print detailed reports.”
I’ll be discussing calculating and file-management devices, 1920s-style, in the third post of my series (the second post will be about transportation).
RE: What is China’s real population?
Chinese commenter Lei thinks it’s far less than the claimed 1.4 billion, and is actually likely to be many hundreds of millions less, perhaps around 900 million or even less. One of the key factors producing this enormous reduction in population has been Covid, now followed by the current, apparently very deadly epidemic of what has been termed “bird flu” sweeping China.
This link also includes many short videos from people from areas all over China, noticing and talking about how the formerly crowded and bustling lanes, streets, subways, restaurants, malls, apartments, shopping districts, individual shops in both major and lesser cities, and even some rural villages are pretty devoid of people, and asking the same question, where is everybody? *
* See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsIg-_5Yl_8&t=1398s
David Foster, looking forward to both. I have a lot of transportation history in my library and I collect technical manuals (PDF or otherwise) for teletype, punch card data processing and pre internet computing. I also have an unfinished PDP-6 simulator project that I have been thinking about using AI* to help finish the programming otherwise it has been languishing for years.
* inspired to do so by the commentariat here
@Snow on Pine:Chinese commenter Lei thinks it’s far less than the claimed 1.4 billion, and is actually likely to be many hundreds of millions less, perhaps around 900 million or even less. One of the key factors producing this enormous reduction in population has been Covid, now followed by the current, apparently very deadly epidemic of what has been termed “bird flu” sweeping China.
China could not have 500 million people die in 5 years and possibly keep that secret: every two people would be burying the third one…. If their population really is as low as 900 million, the famine in the 1950s and the one-child policy would be the primary drivers along with official exaggerations of the population over many years.
In other words, it could only be true if they’d been lying about their population for years, which they certainly could have been.
Niketas Choniates–
Lai is not the only China observer who has been reporting–some videos included–that, over the last several years, Chinese coffin makers and crematories have been overwhelmed–working 24/7, with crowds of people pictured, waiting on the roads to these crematories, to send their coffins in for cremation, or, to pickup the resultant ashes, and that the authorities–who have very tight control over information, have been trying to make sure that this fact and the true extent of deaths from COVID and now, “bird flu,” do not become widely known.
A thorough intelligence analysis– Chinese “grain of sand” stye–trying to determine the true extent of population loss in China, would piece together all sorts of disparate pieces of information.
A task which, I am sure, some of our three letter agencies have been and are undertaking.
Thus, If I remember correctly, there was one report I saw of an analysis done, via satellite images, of Wuhan, and the traffic volume at this location, which showed a remarkable decrease in traffic i.e. likely/perhaps a lot fewer people around to drive.
P.S. According to various commenters and experts on demographics China is already in the midst of an irreversible, natural population decline, and epidemics, it would seem likely, could make that downward slide even more precipitous.
It seems to me that, as well, the videos, linked to above, of Chinese from all areas of China, noticing the apparently massive decrease in the number of people on the streets, at public venues, and in restaurants and shops–and feeling disturbed and puzzled enough to post videos about this–is worth paying attention to, and giving a fair amount of credence.
@Snow on Pine:Lai is not the only China observer who has been reporting–some videos included–that, over the last several years, Chinese coffin makers and crematories have been overwhelmed–working 24/7
While that could be–none of my relatives in China now or who have visited there since 2020 saw any of it–it does not add up to 500 million people. Or 100 million. That is an enormous logistical challenge, literally visible from space.
It’s one thing to say more people are dead than has been acknowledged. It is a very different thing to say that many millions of people are dead and it’s somehow being hidden.
I plan to be in China in December and I’ll keep an eye out.
It seems to me that, as well, the videos, linked to above, of Chinese from all areas of China, noticing the apparently massive decrease in the number of people on the streets, at public venues, and in restaurants and shops, is worth paying attention to, and giving some credence.
I could make such videos about the United States and make the case it’s depopulated too. You’re not actually getting an unbiased survey of everybody and every place in China. You could never watch that many videos.
Our legacy media does this kind of crap all the time, shows a video of something somewhere and says it’s typical of everywhere when it’s not.
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2025/03/12/proposed-california-anti-self-defense-bill-is-causing-plenty-of-heartburn-n3800686
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Just remember that liberals despise ordinary people and fancy they deserve to be victims of crime. The criminals are their preferred pets.
https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2025/03/12/alex-marlow-moderate-dem-rep-seth-moulton-uses-tesla-terrorism-epidemic-to-attack-trump/
@Banned Lizard
It has me in the first half, and then it became absolutely retarded, delving into full throated Kremlin apologia and at least a tinge of 9/11 trutherism (without specifying what “facts” related to that are so pertinent, unlike the other cases).
As bad as the EU and Ukraine can and have been, they are not more totalitarian than Russia is. Far from it. The author rightfully complains about Chinese “fishing fleets” acting as pirates and bullies but ignores who the PRC’s major Allie’s are, and complains about EU authoritarianism while ignoring how while the Kremlin can’t be blamed for all of it it and its Allies have helped corrode it by well laced bribes (which is one reason the EU has been so unserious about Ukraine). And then it goes so far as to claim that a Russian victory would not harm America’s fundamental interests. Because apparently the author thinks we are so daft we cannot trace dirty money going to American Greens or figure out who communist Venezuela and Cuba’s major patrons are.
China has social credit, the most totalitarian instrument ever, you don’t go along, you don’t eat you can’t pay rent,
they gaslit us with the Covid, into the lockdowns which were ruinous to social health and stability, why did people go along well in part since 1980, constructivist educational templates, devised in the Soviet Union, were introduced into the class rooms, my generation was probably the first to dodge that bullet, but the damage was done in the subsequent eras,
9/11 denialism, I don’t grant them the truth label, is possibly the stupidest thing, but probably because Western Intelligence was unwilling to reveal much O of what they knew in the months afterward, like the Bayoumi tape of him meeting with hijackers in London, Tony Blair didn’t know about this, to cite one example,
Of course it doesn’t lend itself to a convenient sound bite, but denial is a long and dangerous river, and nearly 25 years after the Afghan expedition started, can you tell me who won, it doesn’t appear to be us, change my mind about us,
the way effendi khalil is treated, vs say Yoxley, nee Robinson, even the most avowedly pro West party, Reform seems to be getting a little wobbly, in some corners,
who seems to be a real present danger to the people of the West,
i know its like shooting fish in a barrel
https://twitchy.com/dougp/2025/03/13/ny-times-michelle-goldberg-what-makes-america-great-n2409753
@miguel cervantes
I agree, the PRC has among the most totalitarian systems devised in the modern era, and the systematic corruption, oppression, and tyranny with which COVID and a host of other things were damning. The West is in deep trouble, but it can absolutely get worse. I imagine the rape gangs of Rotherham would only dream of the sort of power and license that Karydov and his Wahhabis can and do organize in not just Chechnya and Dagestan but throughout Russia.
I agree re: 9/11 denialism, and how often the attempts to deny and censor the truth by the Powers that Be bred justifiable suspicion of them (worse when the truth was outright denied like with COVID), and what is more galling is how often this served no good purpose even from those censoring.
As for who won Afghanistan, the Taliban did, though at least Al Qaeda and Osama lost. Which will hopefully meant the Taliban’s ability to sponsor terrorism in our home will hurt.
Reform’s buckling in part due to the two faced and inconsistent nature of Farage, who sadly is among the better figures in the West.
However, let’s not kid ourselves. Putin and I’d argue even the PRC are far from the greatest single threats to the West, but they cooperate handily with many that are. For all the talk about Putin This and Trump That, who do people think the Kremlin financed more when it came to energy policy? Ukraine is many things, but prepared to send warships out to assist the PRC in some kind of criminal bluff in the Pacific or sponsor Hezbollah’s Venezuelan branch are not some of them.
Ignoring the threat the Kremlin poses and how its interests are mutually exclusive with many of ours just because it is far from the worst is a mistake. That doesn’t necessarily believe I think we need to prioritize it, especially in Current Year. But it does mean we need to be wary.
RE: The “Mandate of Heaven”
In the traditional Chinese dynastic cycle, the current dynasty starts to experience increasing problems and disorder—natural disasters, famine, popular uprisings, etc.— and it eventually falls, it’s leader—the Emperor—seen as having “lost the Mandate of Heaven,” and a new leader and dynasty rises to rule China.
It’s said that Xi is very superstitious, and I’m wondering—in view of all of the natural disasters, outbreaks of disease, economic decline, and growing public discontent and demonstrations I am seeing being reported — if Xi isn’t worried that he is losing that Mandate.