Yearly Archive: 2019

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Uncategorized

20 Nov, 2019

Wednesday’s Child: Natural Hypochondria

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The weather’s changed, we are now into the rainy season, and the crowds in pharmacies are out of control.  The British equivalent of the Italian drugstore is the local post office branch, because there, too, people socialize while waiting in the interminable queue, with the dispatch of a parcel a mere cover story not unlike the quest for advice regarding a cold sore.  The gum-chewing, nose-pierced, orange-haired girl in the window, however, is nothing like the patrician figure of the pharmacist – always male, and portly enough to exude authority – a single word from whose august mouth can make...

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All Paid Subscribers / Seiler

19 Nov, 2019

Judge Napolitano Wrong on Impeachment

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I’ve learned much from Judge Andrew Napolitano from his many years of Constitution-based commentaries on current events. But he’s wrong in backing the Democrats’ impeachment hearings on President Trump.  Napolitano wrote this week in a column titled, “Is Ignorance of the Constitution Trump’s Defense?” that the charges against Trump are “solicitation, bribery and obstruction” relating to Ukraine, specifically the May 25 call with the country’s President Zelinsky.  Well, we’ve all read the transcript. To me, it’s obvious Trump was just checking on possible bribery involving Hunter Biden when his father was vice president, in the most corrupt country in Europe,...

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All Paid Subscribers / Andrei Navrozov / Wednesday's Child

13 Nov, 2019

Wednesday’s Child: A Chat with a Finance Inspector

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Guardia di Finanza has made a lot of headlines over the last few years by ambushing unsuspecting citizens as they left fancy hotels like La Poste in Cortina d’Ampezzo and luxury shops like Prada in Palermo – as well as expensive restaurants, sports car dealers, cigar emporia, men’s tailors, furriers, jewelers, and so on, ordering hapless shoppers to disclose the source of funds that brought upon them the iniquity of spending

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Fleming / Free Content

11 Nov, 2019

The Honest Journalist, Part One (of Two)

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Mankind does not need to be taught to lie: Adam told his first lie in the Garden, but it is disconcerting to realize that the talk radio listeners, in modeling themselves on Mark Levin and Shawn Hannity, have learned to be as one-dimensional and misinformed as their heroes.  I suppose, in defense of the American people, we should concede that the best people do not listen to talk radio or read the newspapers. 

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All Paid Subscribers / Seiler

11 Nov, 2019

Bernie: Open the Borders All the Way, Baby

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Give it to Bernie Sanders for pushing policies almost all top Democrats now advocate. He also did that in 2016, when Hillary stole the nomination from him.  Now it’s immigration. The Nation’s article put it well, from the Left’s perspective, with the subhead a summary: “Bernie’s Immigration Plan Is Good: The senator’s newly released plan—to halt deportations, abolish ICE, create a path to citizenship, and boost worker protections—marks a shift not only in Democratic policy but even from his own prior positions.” Just a couple years ago, Bernie still was an old worker-oriented Marxist, like a 1930s Wobblie. As the...

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All Paid Subscribers / Andrei Navrozov / Wednesday's Child

6 Nov, 2019

Wednesday’s Child: In Memoriam

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A friend of mine died last week.  Maybe not a friend, more of an acquaintance, but so monumental were the man’s life and works that my desire to stand for a moment in his shadow is easily understood. These gradations of intimacy – close friend, friend, acquaintance, passing acquaintance, somebody whose book you’ve read, somebody with whom you once shared a seat in a train carriage – are actually quite tricky.  It comes down to knowing a person, but when does one really know someone?  Cases are a dime a dozen when fathers and sons, and even more commonly husbands...