Utopia, you are standing in it!

I found this article, from VICE, mentioned in a public tweet from activist and atheist Ali Rizvi, who was aping the “first they came from the bird names. . ” craziness. This time, though, it’s not bird names, but veganism.

I suppose that anything these days can be found racist, like knitting and young adult fiction, not to mention bird names, but the idea that veganism was inherently white was alien to me. Perhaps that’s because I live in Chicago, which has a fair number of vegan restaurants run by African-Americans (many Black Muslims are either vegan or vegetarians). And a well known vegan retaurant run by blacks,  B’Gabs, is just a few blocks from me. The fact that veganism is seen as “white people’s culture”, then, surprised me. But Anya Zoledziowski, who is of Polish Armenian descent, and identifies as a privileged European, has seen fit to chide…

Posted by Sara M. Butler, 18 August 2020.

Towards the end of the fifteenth century, William Hemyng, a chaplain associated with Hereford cathedral, experienced a harrowing ordeal. Richard Rollesden, undersheriff to Thomas Parker, the county sheriff, stole 21 marks of goods and chattels from a local gentleman, then pinned the crime on Hemyng, whom he arrested and indicted by means of a jury fraudulently empaneled with jurors he had bribed. Hemyng’s time in prison was truly horrific. He tells us that they

sette a pon hym a peyre of grete gyves and boltys of iron to importable to bere and bolted his armes the space of a yerde frome other and then leyde hym yn a peyre of stockys in a depe pytte and with all this peyn ther hongyd hym frome the grounde and kepte hym frome mete and drynke and frome his frendys

(set upon him a…

Net zero carbon dioxide emissions targets are just the latest wheeze to grip our political betters, driven by climate alarmists and rent seekers ready to profit from the wind and solar subsidy scam.

The idea that modern economies can function without the energy generated by fossil-fuels (whether consumed by motorcars or in power generation) is up there with living on Mars and perpetual motion machines.

And yet, there are plenty paying lip service to a concept that has the engineers who built the systems upon which we rely, thoroughly flummoxed. One of them, Mike Travers CEng, MIMechE, FIET spent twenty years in the Royal Engineers and in the 1960s ran a Geodetic Satellite Tracking Station. In the 1970s he worked in the hydroelectric sector on the Columbia and Snake River systems in the USA. He was also a member of the IET Wiring Regulations Committee. In the 1980s he was in…

This week, briefing began in WildEarth Guardians v. U.S. Department of Justice, a case of critical importance to anyone concerned about federal overcriminalization. The Endangered Species Act makes it a crime to “knowingly violate” the statute’s prohibition against taking listed species. For decades, the United States has interpreted this to mean that, to be convicted, a defendant must know his actions will cause take and know the species that will be taken. The case seeks to overturn that interpretation in the case; in effect, to force federal prosecutors to convict and imprison people for innocent mistakes resulting from ordinary, traditionally lawful activity. [Disclaimer: I, along with several of my PLF colleagues, represent agricultural organizations in the case. You can find our brief here.]

Overcriminalization is another example of the due process deficit in environmental law. Traditionally, the rule of law has prevented this sort of…