Shot in the Dark

Category: Conservatism

  • Will Of The Voter

    George Will has deserved plenty of flak over the past 40 years or so.   And he’s caught some for this interview here.   And I think the flakkers got it wrong: I think what he’s saying here is “let New York voters FA, so the whole nation can FO”.   I mean, it’s going to happen anyway. 

  • The DFL At Work

    The wages of DFL control are languishing as a backwater.     Count the zeros: that’s 90 billion in Pennsylvania…: And 33 million in Minnesota: Other than the number of zeros, the big difference is that the big, Pennsylvania number comes from private investors. Ripe marks…er, taxpayers covered it in Minnesota. So yeah – while I’m…

  • There Must Be A Surge Of Socialists Running For Office

    Their supporters – real and automated – are rutting: We can test whether that’s true or not. Experiment:  Put a group of cute girls in tank tops with order pads in the middle of an open field.   If a “Hooters” magically springs up, you got yourself a theory.  

  • Happy Independence Day

    As the nation creeps up on a 250th birthday, at a time when it’s better to be a human being than at any time in recorded history, in large part due to the nation that is celebrating that birthday, and yet somehow in the worst social shape since its 192nd, and maybe its 85th, I hope you all…

  • Groceries

    Joe Doakes, formerly of Como Park, emails: Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office recently hosted an all-day continuing legal education program titled, “Price, Access, and Power: Exploring Grocery Costs, Food Access, and Competition.” Several speakers advocated for breaking up grocery retailers and establishing government grocery stores in areas that don’t have them, such as high crime…

  • Late To The Party

    Joe Doakes, once of Como Park, emails: John Hinderaker from Powerline looks at the data and comes to the conclusion that Nixon taking us off the gold standard was a mistake. Welcome to the club.  Never too late to wake up to the truth. Now, about the 2020 election . . . Joe Doakes Right.…

  • MCCL: PLINOs?

    For years – longer than just about anyone – I’ve been writing about “Minnesota Gun Rights”, a group from Iowa whose “business” model is to raise money on ignorance about gun control legislation.  The usual cycle is a little like this:  They raise a hysterical alarm about some piece of legislation that may or may…

  • Battlespace Preparation IV

    Joe Doakes formerly of Como Park emails: One of the upshots of Americans (induced) economic illiteracy is that if they’ve gotten any education in economics at all, it’s been in Keynesianism. As such, they think the natural, effective response to an economic downturn is to pour taxpayer money into the situation. Which merely stretches out…

  • Hear Me Out

    On the one hand, it’s amusing to see that suddenly “cultural appropriation” – in this case, a bunch of rhythmically-challenged Argentine leftist “Karens” But I think this is a good thing.  Hear me out. Until the mid 1940s, Argentina was a wealthy first-world country, with a per capita GDP competitive with the US.  Then, the…

  • I Was Told There Would Be Pouncing

    While this is good – and expected – news, I feel a little cheated. Companies are ditching DEI because it’s bad for the bottom line; they can practice equality without flogging “equity”.  But notice how it’s framed: “under pressure from conservative activists”.  I mean, if you’re going to “blame” companies’ rediscovering economic and social sanity…

  • News You Can Use – Now For 47% Off When You Mention “Jeremy’s Razors”

    I’m pondering renewing my subscription to Daily Wire.   On the one hand, they’ve got good news coverage.  On the other, the “membership” user experience needs work.  So as part of my analysis process, I present: Mitch Ranks the Daily Wire Podcasts. Podcasts are rated in terms of Overall quality (subjective, judged by me), and Standard…

  • Heavy Is The Crown

    Joe Doakes, formerly of Como. Park, emails: Some historian – I forget who – described the British monarchy of myth, from its origins until probably the 1600s, as the old-world equivalent of Mafia factions duking it out for the position of Capo di Tutti Capi, only with no FBI to prevent slop-over to the wider…

  • Notes From The Soggy Zone

    Last week, I ruffled some of the usual feathers by posting a link to this video by Ryan McBeth. McBeth is a former anti-tank grunt who now does open-source intelligence and systems work. His Youtube and Substack channels are interesting; he doesn’t get everything right (he is still claiming Mossad figured out how to remotely…

  • Morning In Canada

    It’s a cliché of modern Western life – “youth” rebel against their elders. Since the dawn of western “youth culture” right around 70 years ago, that’s pretty much always meant a leftward tilt – and in much of the world, it still does. But something interesting is going on in Canada: I can remember the…

  • A Time For Choosing A Movie

    I saw the Reagan biopic last week. The movie was…good.   Not the great movie the subject or the time of history deserves; Philip Klein points out some of the problems I couldn’t quite articulate, while Jim Geraghty echoed the reasons I left the show so excited anyway: Reagan is ultimately deeply satisfying for those of…

  • When A Plan Comes Together

    So, the housing permit numbers for the Twin Cities are in.  And if putting people in houses is  your goal, they are…uh, not good: Saint Paul: And Minneapolis: Was it rent control? Bidenomics? Why choose?

  • A Cold California

    Bill Glahn at the Center of the American Experiment tracked energy usage in MInnesota for one hot ugly day, this past Monday: “Renewables” provide 8% of the energy. Somehow, though, they’ll be ready to take the entire load (and all those mandated EVs) by 2040? Reminds me of this classic discourse on solving difficult problems:…

  • “Moderate”

    Tim Walz loves him some Chinese Communism.  Well, at the very least he loved it, back when he was teaching kids “social studies”: There appears to be precious little evidence that he changed anything but  his surface decorations (during 12 years as a “moderate” while campaigning in the rural 1st CD). 

  • Pretext

    This is as concise a riposte as I’ve seen: I’m a little saltier about this: I think abolishing the Electoral College is ample grounds for dissolving the Republic.

  • The New Political Geography

    Perhaps you heard – conservatives won big in EU elections last weekend. You might have missed it, because the news only referred to “the far right” – as if Francisco Franco were back from the dead. Indeed, it’s yet another term that today’s left have rendered meaningless: Let not pretend this is accidental. Big Left…

  • About That Henco District 6 Special Election

    Heather “Lawnmower Barbie” Edelson, beat Marisa Simonetti, 54-45. In other words: A woman with near 100% name recognition, especially among people who come out for special elections, beat someone nobody had heard of three weeks before the election. By nine points. In a district Keith Ellison won by 20, and Governor Klink by 30: There’ll…

  • Your Mission For Today

    If you live in District Six in Hennepin County – this area here…: …you need to get out and vote Marisa Simonetti for Hennepin County Commission in the special election being held today. She’s an unknown conservative who ran in the runoff three weeks ago, spent about $700, and got 33% of the vote with…

  • You Asked For Another Reason To Bash Hollywood…

    …and Hollywood obliges. They’re apparently using North Korean animators.

  • “Speaking To A Rally With 30,000 People About Hayek”

    I always liked the idea of Argentina’s libertarian-conservative President, Javier Milei. But after seeing this interview, I am actively wondering a bunch of things: Does the US need to bottom out, as Argentina’s been doing for most of my life – before being ready to, as he says, “put on our long pants?” and embrace…

  • Feeling So 1938

    History doesn’t repeat – but it rhymes. The world’s major powers are rattling their sabers as they spar in secondary theaters. The economies are in the hands of people who love to tinker with the levers and buttons of the Big State. And young intellectually over-stimulated but underendowed bobbleheads are romping and playing: Everything old…