2,358 words
The people of the ancient Mediterranean had a peculiar belief. They believed that malodorous air, or bad air, was a cause of a particular disease which, owing to its origins, they named malaria. This was called the miasma theory of disease. Guided by this theory, they sought to build their cities away from sources of bad air, such as swamps and other bodies of stagnant, foul-smelling water. (more…)
4,533 words
The 2011 film Contagion is truly a movie for our times, especially now. It’s quite peculiar how the battle against infectious disease, ongoing for a century and a half, suffered a staggering setback in merely two years. For posterity’s sake, I’ll digress a bit about the present historical context in this rapidly-changing situation. (more…)
2,161 words
Andrew Lawton
The Freedom Convoy: The Inside Story of Three Weeks that Shook the World
Toronto: Sutherland House, 2022
Andrew Lawton is a senior journalist with the Canadian conservative news website True North, founded by Candice Malcolm. Lawton has written a detailed account of the trucker protest that took over the streets of Canada’s federal capital, Ottawa, for three weeks in the winter of 2022. (more…)
2,515 words
For the past two and a half years, the world has been gripped by the COVID-19 pandemic response. The disease itself, which broke out in China, turned out to be a bit of a nothingburger. Not exactly “just the flu, bro,” but not quite the doomsday plague many were hoping for. (more…)
438 words / 2:01:16
Riley Waggaman of the Edward Slavsquat blog was host Nick Jeelvy‘s guest on the latest broadcast of The Writers’ Bloc, where they took a look at the situation inside Russia and its surrounding countries since the sanctions, and it is now available for download and online listening. (more…)
Vikki Spit and her fiancée. Spit has become the first person in the UK to receive compensation from the government for a death — her fiancée’s — resulting from the Covid-19 vaccine.
Vikki Spit and her fiancée. Spit has become the first person in the UK to receive compensation from the government for a death — her fiancée’s — resulting from the Covid-19 vaccine.
1,779 words
Beware the Ides of June
Under British parliamentary rules, a vote of no confidence in a Prime Minister is similar to a recall vote in the United States, but it is the members of the incumbent PM’s parliamentary party — 359 Conservative MPs, in this case — who vote, and not the people. The peons only get to vote in general elections, where their choice is essentially between two brands of the same soap powder. (more…)
Lara Logan
Lara Logan
1,863 words
If you are as adept as I am at picking Jews out of a police lineup, you would realize upon first glance that South African-born TV reporter and war correspondent Lara Logan is not Jewish. Like Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron, another South African-born blonde butterfly, Logan has the sort of icily superhuman Nordic beauty that leads one to suspect she was designed in a biolab by some lascivious descendant of Hugo Boss. She’s so decisively non-Jewish, bagels immediately go stale in her presence. (more…)
1,295 words
The Freedom Convoy shows no signs of capitulation. The grassroots populist revolt against Canada’s oppressive COVID rules continues to gain support and draw concessions from government officials. (more…)
3,139 words
Ever since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, conspiracy theories have been the talk of the Internet. One of the most interesting phenomena in relation to the pandemic has been witnessing conspiracy theories evolve into “science,” and vice versa. (more…)
Boris Johnson and colleagues enjoying some wine at Downing Street in May 2020, when the British police were using drones to harass ordinary citizens who weren’t following social distancing guidelines and lockdown measures.
Boris Johnson and colleagues enjoying some wine at Downing Street in May 2020, when the British police were using drones to harass ordinary citizens who weren’t following social distancing guidelines and lockdown measures.
3,502 words
Now I can say that I’ve lived in a plague house. Everyone caught the coof here. I became one of the critics of The Narrative about COVID-19 who caught its latest incarnation. Normally this sort of thing is a great occasion for critics of the critics to throw around a lot of snark. Not so fast, though — I caught it from a boarder who is double vaxxed, and of all of us, seems to have had the worst of it. (more…)
1,180 words
President Joe Biden seems powerless to do anything about . . . well, anything at the moment. He promised to change election laws to “save democracy” (read: give his party permanent political power), and he can’t do it. He vowed to fix immigration, but the problem only grows worse. He pledged to make America’s geopolitical opponents respect us, but they are doing the opposite. He said he would end COVID, but everyone is still in masks and hysteria continues to reign. (more…)
