What the Danish and European media misunderstand (and misrepresent) about America, and vice versa. And other stuff.
There’s a lot of stupidity in the Danish news today but a couple of days ago there was a sign of lucidity. That’s worthy of note. The new Danish government—the monstrous red-blue-purple “technocratic” government installed as a consequence of the November election—has made one of its first priorities the demonstration of its economic ignorance. Or,…
A business article in today’s Berlingske Tidende examines what the spending bill passed by the U.S. Congress means for Denmark. The facts presented by the article are more or less accurate, but they’re served to the reader in a way that raises some interesting questions. When the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, made a surprise…
There’s an old Danish maxim that “necessity teaches naked women to sew.” (Nød lærer nøgen kvinde at spinde). It’s actually to spin, not sew, but teaching naked women to spin is weirdly ambiguous in English—it might just as easily be a reference to pole-dancing classes. A figurative translation is better: necessity is the mother of…
Energy prices are skyrocketing in Europe and the natives are getting restless. The situation absolutely requires that a really stupid and futile gesture be done on somebody’s part—and you know what that means: The EU summit will fight skyrocketing energy prices: “Russia’s manipulating our energy markets”Per Bang Thomas, DR.dk, 7 Sept Is it boring and…
Language Note: Colorful language ahead. If you don’t care for that kind of thing, move along. Joe Biden is shopping for votes again: this time he’s offering a $10,000 bribe. President Biden is expected to announce a plan Wednesday to cancel thousands of dollars in federal student loan debt for borrowers who make less than…
It’s a red-letter day in Scotland. As the DR headline puts it, “Starting today it’s free to menstruate in Scotland.” Menstruation has always been free of charge in Scotland, as far as I can tell, but beginning today tampons and menstrual pads will be available free of charge to that country’s menstruators. (Really to everyone: apparently…
Courtesy of Ed Driscoll over at Instapundit: That’s the Washington Post saying that the current energy crisis was supposed to kickstart a green revolution, “but the world wasn’t ready.” There’ll be snowmen in Hell before I pay my way through the Washington Post paywall, but since they’re the extreme left’s most loyal propagandists it’s unlikely…
Back when I lived in New York, there were always guys hanging around the entrances to the busier subway stops selling all kinds of junk: pirated CDs and DVDs, scarves, knock-off purses and wallets, cheap sunglasses, the usual kind of flea-market crap. A lot of them also sold umbrellas. Cheap things, sure to blow apart…
First Update The following companies have wholly or partly suspended operations in Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine. They are thereby punishing not the Russian state, but the Russian people. On the other hand, they continue to operate in China, which even the UN has acknowledged is conducting genocide against it Uighyur population. China…
An article published on Bloomberg this past Saturday was widely ridiculed—but for all the wrong reasons. Entitled For Americans Shocked by Inflation, Argentines Have Some Advice, the article offers a few tips for Americans coping with inflation from Argentines for whom it’s become a way of life. Number one on the list: “Spend your paycheck…
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has compelled me to violate my own rule about not embedding tweets. Second time in a week that’s happened. Before we get to the tweet, let’s clarify a few things: the DCCC is an explicitly partisan organization. In their own words (from the “About Us” page of their website),…
I couldn’t resist the metaphorical implications of Salvatore Garau’s invisible statue yesterday, but over the weekend a much more practical story had broken and I’d intended to write about it before Io Sono didn’t catch my eye. So here we are, a day late and a dollar short: Will stop “the race to the bottom”:…
Joe Biden’s so-called “Infrastructure” plan, with a price tag equivalent to about 5% of all the money that exists in the world right now, includes a provision to increase the corporate tax rate up from 21% to 28%. If math isn’t your strong point, that’s an an increase of 33%. One of the many problems…
Pretty much everyone knows Aesop’s fable of the ants and the grasshopper: the grasshopper frolics the summer away while the ants work hard to set aside enough provisions to survive the winter. Come autumn, the sick and starving grasshopper begs the ants for food. “You made music all summer,” the ants say, “now dance!” And…
Two items just caught my eye within a relatively short period, and taken together they illustrate some of the problems Danes and Americans have when trying to understand each other’s politics. The first item was a headline from DR: “Sundhedsministeren kan bestemme, hvad et mundbind skal koste – men han afviser at tvinge prisen ned.”…
