The Horribles Parade

I grew up in a small New England town that celebrated the Fourth of July with special vigor. Among the festivities was (and remains) something called the Horribles Parade. We didn’t move to Marblehead until I was within a few months of my tenth birthday, so I was at a more or less perfect age…

Calm Down Wade

Whenever I need to translate Danish passages of more than a sentence or two for this blog, I let Google translate do the heavy lifting and then I just tidy up whatever it got wrong (or awkward). The most frequent mistranslation I encounter is “The Bite” for Biden: en bid is “a bite,” biden is…

The Continuing Crisis of Innumeracy, Part Whatever

Most of the men and women in our establishment media are bad with numbers. Really bad. They’re bad at counting things, bad at statistics, bad at economics, bad at math. Which is bad for those of us who rely on them to shape our understanding of the world we live in. Fortunately that’s a rapidly…

Democracy Under Attack

We begin this post with two quick items before getting into our headline event. First: last night’s Fredagsrock at Tivoli appears to have been a calm affair. Youngest attended with four friends: they were able to enter the park at about three in the afternoon, the crowd never got out of hand, and they enjoyed…

Three White Men Cross Their Streams to Destroy a Woman Running Against Another White Man

This is a pretty remarkable headline: Foreign heads of state involve themselves in French presidential election: warn against voting for Le PenPer Bang Thomsen, DR.dk, 22 Apr Election interference by foreign countries is supposed to be a bad thing, isn’t it? That’s what American Democrats and their international allies—everyone who wants to sit at the…

Is DR Deceitful or Just Oblivious?

I have to ask this of the DR editorial staff, at least those responsible for coverage of the United States: are they willfully dishonest, or just ignorant? It went the right way for many years, but crime is now rising in New YorkMads Vestergaard, DR.dk, Apr 14 That’s an article that’s “hooked” to the recent…

Marchons, Marchons!

The big news over the weekend was the lack of assaults at the Grammy Awards. Also interesting: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stunned the Grammy Awards on Sunday night with a surprise message in which he told the audience to “fill the silence with music.” DR has roused itself to meet Zelensky’s challenge: they’ve prepared a…

Don’t Let’s Be Beastly to the Russians

A propos of what I wrote about Wednesday, DR has a piece today going into depth on just how wonderfully the Russian people are being punished. Here are the services and brands that the Russians now have to do without – and those that still workMarcel Mirzaei-Fard, DR.dk, Mar 10 Facebook is closed. You can…

Danish Media Surprised to Learn that the Twitterverse is a Hothouse of Stupid

I’ve written a lot about Michael Crichton’s “Gell-Mann Amnesia” in the past. It’s the phenomenon of encountering a story in the media on a topic about which you’re knowledgeable, realizing the story has everything completely wrong, then relying on the same media for stories on subjects about which you are not knowledgeable and assuming they’ve…

Chardonnay Journalism

Personal update: Covid appears to have completed its course through our household. The girls are back in school and Herself is up and about, although the virus seems to be lingering with her. And once again I was left untouched as covid struck everyone around me. One would think that by the time February 2022…

The Taliban’s Great Big Oslo Adventure

Taliban representatives are right now in Norway for a three-day conference with representatives from western governments. The conference is scheduled to end today. I was startled to see coverage of the conference on a news segment Monday evening. Here were avowed members of the Taliban milling around a conference room in Oslo, doing their best…

Let Me to the Marriage of Three Minds Admit Impediments

We seem to be in one of those historical moments upon which historians look back and ask, “How could they let it happen? How did they let it go so far and get so bad so fast?” My own hot-take on the disaster we’re about to endure is the same as it’s ever been: the…

Steffen Kretz Explains Biden’s First Year

DR’s ace correspondent Steffen Kretz has once again put pen to paper to misinform those of us who pay his salary. President Biden’s first year began hopefully, but defeats are now dominantSteffen “Ace Correspondent” Kretz, DR.dk, Jan 21 Lede: “U.S. President Joe Biden has gone from being popular to the opposite in his first year…

On Creating Division

Danish Prime Minister Metter Frederiksen holds a position on abortion that’s opposed by many Danes. “Some say that the question of abortion is necessarily nuanced,” she wrote in 2021 Facebook post. ” I don’t agree. Either we are for. Or we’re against. There is no middle road.” She is proudly and openly for. Is it…

Lie, Smear, Rinse, Repeat

In an article that’s supposed to be about Joe Biden’s address to the nation on January 6, DR proves once again that there’s no Democratic Party talking point they’re unwilling to pass on to the Danish public as a matter of established fact. Correspondent: Biden’s speech was the first direct accusation from “the top” against…

Journalisming

Ladies and gentleman, the balanced Danish media: Do you remember the pictures? A year ago wild and angry Trump supporters stormed the American capitolAngelica Schou-Petersen, DR.dk, Jan 6 One year after the attack on America’s democracy: what’s happened since the storming of the capitol?Lillian Gjerulf Kretz, DR.dk, Jan 6 Trump’s people have put a large-scale…

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…

Another Day, Another Datum

Statens Serum Institut (SSI) works under the authority of the Danish Ministry of Health. Their primary function is, in their own words, “to ensure preparedness against infectious diseases and biological threats as well as control of congenital disorders.” Their importance and visibility have obviously been elevated in Denmark since the start of 2020. As I…

Misleadership

According to DR, Statens Serum Institut (SSI) has promised “more precise numbers” for corona admissions after the New Year. The added precision will come in the form of a distinction between inpatient admissions of patients due to corona and admissions of patients with corona. “More precise,” in this case, appears to mean “correct.” SSI is…

Definition, Please

There’ve been a lot of international headlines the past couple of days about the British Home Secretary’s having put forward a bill to punish Britons expressing racism online toward soccer players by depriving offenders of the right to attend matches in person for up to ten years. For example: British minister tightens grip: Online hatred…