Autumn

 

Bureaucracy Lives

 "Can an appointment be made with the doctor prior to having the medical records?"

"No, you must have your medical records from the hospital before setting the appointment."

"Can't the specialist directly obtain the medical records from the hospital?"

"No, the patient will have to do so, and then an appointment can be set."

"Will it make a difference if the specialist and the hospital are in the same medical group?"

"Sometimes, but not in these types of medical cases."

"Aargh."

Europe's Suicide

To be on the side of the incomers was to be on the side of the angels. To speak for the people of Europe was to be on the side of the devil. And all the time there existed that strange assumption that Europe was simply letting one more person into the room. Whether that person was genuinely about to be killed in the corridor became immaterial. If he was cold, poor, or just worse off than the people inside the room, he too had the right to come in. Europe could no longer be bothered to turn anyone away. And so the door remained open to anyone who wanted to walk through it.

- Douglas Murray, The Strange Death of Europe

Martin Mull

 

Robots, Planets, and Neat Stuff

 A new future?

Ever Present Dangers

 

Patience and Thought

We live in an action-oriented society, one stressing motion and quick decisions, and often it is not until later in life that one begins to appreciate the importance of patience.

While pondering a related essay, I have been noticing how many times in my youth involved checking multiple boxes and meeting an array of deadlines. 

In retrospect, I would have benefited from a frequent routine of long walks and slow cups of coffee combined with heavy doses of introspection.

Those practices once were wrongly regarded as goofing off.

That's no longer the case for me.

[Photo by Daiga Ellaby at Unsplash]

Saving Britain

Spiked: Peter Hitchens on the state of Britain.

The Best Sherlock

 

The Diversity of Like Minds

 Yet featured in the pageantry of the day are the speeches, lasting well into the afternoon, that disfigure it. Student orators have a say; the president speaks; various deans congratulate their charges; invited guests add their voices. And every one of them intoned the talk of the left wing of the Democratic Party. Not a single Republican was to be heard - not even heard of, not even a mention of Donald Trump (that I heard), for no speaker bothered to state views opposed to their own. Present and future Republicans and conservatives were gratuitously slighted and left with a sour taste of having their good will imposed upon. At commencement the university exposes its beliefs, showing whom it honors and for what. Harvard's honorary degrees went only to men and women of the left, all speaking to the goals and practices of diversity and the opinions of the left.

- Harvey C. Mansfield, Where Harvard Went Wrong: Fifty Years of Commentary That Fell on Deaf Ears