Utopia, you are standing in it!

In honor of Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee I am updating the list of the longest reigning monarchs in British History.

This list covers the Kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons, England, Scotland, England and Scotland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom.

Alfred the Great, King of the Anglo-Saxons

1. Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom ~ 70: years

2. Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom ~ 63 years, 216 days
3. King George III of the United Kingdom ~ 59 years, 96 days
4. King James VI of Scotland ~ 57 years, 246 days*
5. King Henry III of England ~ 56 years, 30 days
6. King Edward III of England ~ 50 years, 147 days
7. King William I of Scotland ~ 48 years, 360 days
8. Queen Elizabeth I of England ~ 44 years, 127 days
9. King David II of Scotland ~ 41 years, 260 days
10. King…

Planet of the Apes (1968) Director: Franklin J. Schaffner

“Take your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape!”

★★★★★

Released at the same time as Stanley Kubrick’s groundbreaking 2001: A Space Odyssey, Planet of the Apes is a brilliant science fiction film based on La Planète des singes(1963) by French writer Pierre Boulle. It explores a variety of compelling themes –evolutionary biology, space/time travel, and the nature of prejudice (appropriate for its themes Planet of the Apes was released one day before the death of Martin Luther King Jr). Television’s golden writer Rod Serling was hired to write the script (originally intended to be a Twilight Zone spin-off), but after a year or so Serling departed the project so the script cycled through different writers eventually settling on Michael Wilson, writer of Bridge on the River Kwai. Apparently the final script contained numerous departures from Boulle’s…

Switzerland’s left-wing party has instigated a referendum for November 24 that asks voters to limit pay ranges so that a company wouldn’t be able to pay top employees more than 12 times what they’re paying their lowest-level employees.

I talked with Neil Cavuto about this proposal and made several (hopefully) cogent points.

Since Swiss voters already have demonstrated considerable wisdom (rejecting a class-warfare tax proposal in 2010 and imposing a cap on government spending in 2001), I predicted they will reject the plan. And I pointed out that Switzerland’s comparatively successful system is a result of not letting government have too much power over the economy.

But I don’t want to focus today on the Swiss referendum. Instead, I want to expand on my final point, which deals with the misguided belief by some on the left that the economy is a fixed pie and that you have…

Anyone looking for a taste of what the ‘transition’ to wind and solar might look like, need look no further than Europe. The best (worst) examples, Germany and the UK are in the middle of self-inflicted energy debacles, with many of their neighbours not far behind.

Mass wind droughts – that lasted months at the tail end of 2021 – made it evident that Europe’s overreliance on chaotically intermittent wind power is the product of a grand and collective delusion, driven by dogged and unshakeable ideology; not the first case of collective madness that Germans have experienced, that’s for sure.

Whereas the French retreated from their nuclear power retreat in response to the Big Calm, the Germans remain determined to shut their nuclear power plants, for good.

Being able to tap into coal-fired power from Poland and nuclear power from France is the only reason the Germans can engage in…

Supporters arrive at Parliament Hill for the Freedom Truck Convoy to protest against Covid-19 vaccine mandates and restrictions in Ottawa, Canada, on January 29, 2022. – Hundreds of truckers drove their giant rigs into the Canadian capital Ottawa on Saturday as part of a self-titled “Freedom Convoy” to protest vaccine mandates required to cross the US border. LARS HAGBERG / AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Raheem Kassam points the finger in the right direction in his Newsweek article Canada’s Politicians Only Have Themselves to Blame for Trucker Protests.  Excerpts in italics with my bolds and added images.

If the prime minister of a North African or Middle Eastern nation was forced into hiding by a protest occupying his capital city, Dick Cheney and Hillary Clinton would materialize from thin air to call for U.S.-backed regime change.

“Government Loses Popular Support,” newspaper headlines would blare, amid calls for sanctions, State Department-NGO initiatives and…

News reports can sometimes be the most depressing things we see and hear on a daily basis. So much information is pumped out and consumed by the general public. The advent of social media and constant sharing of facts and misinformation has made communication among the people a harsh landscape. Stories and images shape our perception of the world and its people so we must be careful of what we internalize. Fifty years ago, news stories that occupied major time blocks prominently featured the Vietnam War. Given the divisiveness of the Vietnam War, many have argued that media and news outlets played a prominent role in the United States’ negative outcome. The high amount of reporting on stalemates, low troop morale, and coverage of the anti-war movement fostered conditions where the American public killed any support and led to the collapse of South Vietnam. This attitude amongst historians, journalists, and…