Let’s Provoke

NATO comes under new management in September: current Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will step down and he’ll be replaced with a fresh face. Probably a female face, because, according to Berlingske, “it would look good with a woman to lead the Western defense alliance.” The article by European correspondent Solveig Gram Jensen is entitled “Forget about…

Good news, Denmark! Our army is “practically useless!”

Western governments have gotten very good at doing things they were never intended to do and very bad at the handful of things they were intended to do. Strike that. Western government haven’t been very good at doing anything for decades, but they’ve been squandering our money and reputation on elective absurdities while ignoring what…

He shoots, he scores!

In a comment on last week’s post about the Great Chinese Balloon Caper, I wrote: My fear now is that Biden or his babysitters will do something stupid to prove how tough and resolute they are… I’m gonna go ahead and give myself a bingo on that. Here’s the article Danmarks Radio (DR) published this…

Hot Air

Anyone who’s followed the news this week, in American or in Denmark, knows about the Chinese Balloon spotted drifting over Montana a few days ago. “Spy balloon!” cried America. “Weather balloon!” shouted the CCP. I didn’t follow the story very closely because it seemed awfully trivial and stupid, but that just goes to show how…

The Continuing Relevance of Sovereignty

Some things are so stupid only an intellectual could believe them.—George Orwell (apocryphal) Sovereignty is irrelevant.—Intellectual The new think pieces are here, the new think pieces are here! American professor: The Danish yes is part of a new world orderSolveig Gram Jensen, Berlingske.dk, Jun 2 Yesterday, as expected, Denmark voted overwhelmingly (roughly 2:1) to drop…

Idiots, incompetents, and monsters

The headline of this post is, as best as I can tell from the information available, a succinct and yet comprehensive taxonomy of our ruling class. This was brought home to me today by an article on DR’s website. The EU’s Mission in the Mediterranean hasn’t stopped a single human smugglerTine Toft, DR.dk, May 31…

Defensive Voting

On Wednesday we Danes will be voting on a referendum to answer the following question, which I’ll provide in the original Danish first: Stemmer du ja eller nej til, at Danmark kan deltage i det europæiske samarbejde om sikkerhed og forsvar ved at afskaffe EU-forsvarsforbeholdet? In English: Do you vote yes or no to Denmark…

Denmark: On Second Thought, We’ll Have What Trump Was Having

Flanked by the leaders of four other parties, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen held a press conference last night to announce that a historic, cross-bloc political agreement had been reached. “Given the gravity of the current situation in Ukraine,” the Prime Minister said, “the government and our partners in the four parties represented here tonight have…

Strange Tango

An editorial in today’s Berlingske, signed by Pierre Collignon, is unusually sensible. Entitled “The west hasn’t lost yet. Let’s wait a little before selling out,” the editorial takes exception to the “realists” and “pragmatists” suggesting that the western powers—the US, the EU, NATO—should promise Russia that Ukraine will never be granted membership in the EU…

Bullet the Blue Sky

I got a rifle last fall. Nothing fancy: a used Parker Hale 30-06, off the Lauritz auction website. At this point it’s just a conversation piece because I haven’t yet had a chance to take it out to a range and fire it. That’s partly because I haven’t had a lot of free time, but…