Category Archives: History

College

does not make you a better person.

I’m reading a review copy of an interesting new book from Bob Zimmerman on the history of slavery in America. One of the points he makes is that one of the things that created the cultural environment for it was the nature of how the Cavaliers founded Virginia, with the class bias and denigration of physical labor they brought from England.

Boris Johnson

Will he soon be the most popular leader in the world?

I had lunch with Iain Murray in DC a few weeks ago, who went to school with him. It will be interesting, if nothing else. I asked Iain if May was the worst PM since Chamberlain. “Lord North,” he replied.

[Update Tuesday morning]

With him seeming to be the next PM, the New York Sun is waiting for Boris Johnson.

[Update a couple minutes later]

From the third link:

When it comes to rhetoric and eloquence, he is the anti-Trump.

[Bumped]

[Late-morning update]

https://twitter.com/Holbornlolz/status/1153710647592591360

Cometh the hour, cometh the man.

[Bumped again]

“Rapid Fire Bullet Delivery Systems”

I just saw this tweet:

It reminded me of this old post I wrote in the early aughts. Here is the original, with comments at the time.

Chris Kraft

We continue to lose the giants of that generation.

[Update Tuesday morning]

Heh. “Perhaps the New York Times’ obit for Kraft was already written, as it curiously fails to explore the seething hotbed of sexism and white supremacy that was the early NASA, according to the latest reporting by the New York Times.

[Update a few minutes later]

Eric Berger remembers an inspirational friend.

Per a commenter there, I’ve also been wondering if he had been hanging on to see the 50th anniversary, and then let go.