Better Late Than Never

Vacation is over!

Ok, I’m late.

Really late.

My excuse is that my son got married.

Family, eh? What a drag!

Kidding.

It is nice to be writing again though. Writing has become what running used to be for me when I was younger. If I don’t write I risk being in a bad mood all day.

There’s a runners’ high and running can become an addiction. I think writing may be similar. Although this may sum it up best:

“I hate writing, I love having written.”

― Dorothy Parker

Honestly, if I’d missed a couple of articles during the middle of the month, I just would have moved on, but I do like to get my monthly update done so I’m going to do it now under the guise of “better late than never.”

Before we get to this week’s article though, I am once again making some adjustments.

First, I’m going to move “AYPWIP?” to the top of the update. It is frequently based on the theme of the week so I may as well start with it.

The second is that I will no longer be posting an article from my other Substack, Schrodinger’s Chicken on Hoist the Black Flag. Instead, I will be adding a short article on Fridays. I will continue to write humor columns as inspiration hits me. You can find them here.

Finally, I will be changing my approach to comments. After years of trying to get people involved, I hesitate to say there are too many comments to respond to, but it is starting to take quite a bit of time and if I want to get any writing done, I’m going to have to be selective in my approach to them. So, going forward I will prioritize responses to articles over notes and will have a hierarchy based on the type of person responding:

1. Paid subscribers

2. Free Subscribers

3. Followers

4. Randos

If you want to increase your chances of a response, you know what to do.

AYPWIP?

This week’s article is about making foolish decisions. Or if one prefers, prioritizing dogma over rational thought.

Dogma demands authority, rather than intelligent thought, as the source of opinion; it requires persecution of heretics and hostility to unbelievers; it asks of its disciples that they should inhibit natural kindliness in favor of systematic hatred.
-- Bertrand Russell

“It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.”

-- Thomas Sowell

Of course, there’s another possibility:

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

-- Robert J. Hanlon

Inspiration and Sacrifice

Note: This piece first appeared under my byline on Wrong Speak.

I’m not an inspirational person. I doubt I ever could be. I’m short-tempered, I worry too much, and I’m quiet and introverted (i.e. anti-social to the lampshade of the head crowd - extroverts).

In other words, nobody is going to make a movie about me.

It would be worse if I were to suddenly come down with a rare terminal disease or handicap. Angry people bemoaning their fate do not make for inspiring movie subjects.

There are many movies about inspirational people overcoming hardships, the most famous of which is probably The Miracle Worker, which tells the story of Helen Keller. There are many others of course including:

• My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown, the story of an Irish man born with cerebral palsy, who could control only his left foot, but who grew up in a poor working-class family and became a writer and artist.

• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, the tale of journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby who suffered a massive stroke that left him with locked-in syndrome. He wrote the entire book by blinking his left eyelid, which took him two months working 3 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Me? I am sitting up here in a cottage in Ontario during the Canada Day/Independence Day week in a crappy mood because there’s no A/C.

It’s too hot, there are too many people, the bugs are biting, and the internet sucks.

Nope I’m not an inspiration.

I have some consolation though.

At least I’m not European.

In Canada if I owned this place I could run out and get an air conditioner and eliminate one of my problems. Getting rid of the bugs and people would probably require carpet bombing the area with napalm and I think that’s still illegal.

Europeans are not so lucky.

As I write this, the official tally in Europe has the heat-related death toll at 5,606. Statistical modeling suggests the true death toll from the late-June heatwave has already exceeded 20,000 people.

Contrast these numbers with the US. While this year’s numbers are not yet out, last year the US saw 2,394 heat-related deaths. For the entire year.

A/C is a life saver!

So why won’t more Europeans adopt it?

Europeans restrict and resist air conditioning due to a combination of high energy costs, strict historic preservation laws, architectural challenges, and deep-rooted environmental values.

I’m not going to take issue with the architectural challenges or historic preservation laws - though you’d think a portable unit would address both concerns. I do, however have a problem with “environmental values.”

Note: high energy costs can be grouped into “environmental values” because decisions based on climate change are what is driving those costs.

Are high energy costs and high heat related death rates necessary?

Well, it depends on where you stand regarding climate change.

I know it exists. I’m old enough to have lived through winters in the 70s and 80s and know that winters are a lot milder than they used to be. I just don’t lose much (any) sleep over it because I know that the solution is more technology, not more government. The only way out is through - unless you’re willing to depopulate the planet (i.e. kill a lot of people).

Europeans, or at least the ones making the decisions, are of a different mindset. They believe if we don’t make drastic changes the world is doomed. The predictions are certainly scary. According to environmentalists, the Arctic summer sea ice will completely melt in 2000 2013 2016 2020 between 2027 2030 - stay tuned for an updated date next year.

You know who also changes dystopian predictions when the predicted date passes?

Cultists.

Why are so many Europeans dying from the heat?

Because the climate cultists are killing them to “save the world.”

There’s another word for killing to stave off an environmental concern.

The word is “sacrifice.”

European climate cultists are sacrificing citizens.

They’re not the first to think human sacrifice will save them:

• The Aztecs cut open the chest and extracted the still-beating heart of victims because they feared the stopping of the sun, catastrophic droughts, and famines.

• The Incas practiced Capacocha—the ritual sacrifice of children—during or following major environmental disruptions. They selected physically perfect children, walked them hundreds of miles to high Andean Mountain peaks, then drugged them and then left them to freeze to death in the extreme cold, suffocated, or killed by a heavy blow to the head, then buried in ritual tombs.

Did it work?

About as effectively as European climate laws work at stopping climate change.

But at least the Aztecs and Incas got a show.

Here’s my proposal to the Europeans: legalize A/C and select 5000 Europeans at random and throw them into a volcano (It seems like the most poetic approach).

It won’t do any good, but you could still say you’re fighting climate change (cultists will believe anything after all).

As an added bonus, you could stream it pay-per-view into people’s homes (a la Eurovision ) and use the proceeds to subsidize their electricity bills.

The same number of people would die, but at least you’d all be comfortable in the summer.

It’s time for an Ad!

What? Again?

Yes, because here at Hoist the Black Flag we believe in capitalism.

And nothing says capitalism more than an ad interrupting what you had been enjoying to ask for money.

If only I could do what Amazon Prime does, charge you and then charge you again to remove the ads.

Ah, the dream.

Oh well, this will have to do for now.

Hoist the Black Flag is an audience-supported publication which looks at US, Canadian, and World Politics (and anything else I find interesting).

Look, I get it, the demands for money are never-ending. I would write this even if I didn’t make a dime. I honestly would rather have you read my Substack for free than constantly bug you for money, but it also never hurts to ask, so…

If you enjoy my work, please hit the “Like” button, recommending me to a friend (or an enemy, I’m not choosy) and consider clicking one or more of these buttons as well:

If you are not in a position to become a paid subscriber, please share this article so others can read it too.

Who knows, maybe they will be less fiscally responsible than you.

Podcast Recommendations

I’m adding a new one this month Dan Snow’s History Hit.

Dan Snow’s History Hit - Spain vs Portugal: The Spice Race

I’m adding this one because it touches on a topic I’ve been writing about for a few months now, slavery. It’s also an interesting discussion about unintended consequences.

The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie - Is AI Really Taking All the Jobs? Anthropic Co-Founder Reveals the Data.

After what seems like years, we’re finally finding out the truth of the AI job apocalypse, a truth I’ve been preaching since the beginning, it’s all been marketing hype. Ok, not all, AI will change the workforce but it’s not going to lead to 25% unemployment like many AI “entrepreneurs” were warning us.

Comment of the Month

There were a lot of comments this month so thanks to everyone who participated. Let’s see who deserves a comp this month.

Gregg Wolf went back to an older article and kicked off a discussion regarding GLP-1 drugs and safety data:

“Remember GLP-1 drugs have been used by tens of millions of people since 2005, while Semaglutide (Ozempic/Wegovy) is approaching 10 years and Tirzepatide (Mounjaro/Zepbound) is around 4... continued.”

Reziac had something to say about AI making us dumber:

“I have concluded that “critical thinking” cannot be taught. Either someone has the urge, or... continued.”

MarkC thought more attention needs to be paid to inequality when discussing Elon Musk’s status as the world’s first trillionaire. Warmek and FrankLJ had interesting contributions to the discussion:

“My friend, You are missing the larger point. The debate about Elon Musk isn’t about whether extraordinary innovators deserve differential rewards. it’s about the concentration of wealth and power that is occurring. We’ve seen this... continued.”

FrankLJ also had an interesting comment on my article about remigration (sorry Frank, only one comp per month, even if you have many great comments):

“Much to think about. An interesting sidelight on illiberal methods is that the Bolsheviks, in the 1920’s... continued.”

Note: if I mentioned you here but you’re not a subscriber, I can’t comp you. If you want the comp, become a free subscriber and message me and I’ll comp you then.

Recommend Hoist the Black Flag

For those of you who weren’t lucky enough to win this month you can earn complimentary memberships by referring friends to Hoist the Black Flag from here.

Top 10 Postings

No new entries or changes in the Top 10 rankings this month. I will have to try harder this month.

1. Women Ruin Everything (1)

2. Lies… (2)

3. The White Man’s Burden (3)

4. I didn’t cheat, I just broke the rules (4)

5. NOTHING is Illegal on Stolen Land (5)

6. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me (6)

7. Help! Help! I’m Being Oppressed! (7)

8. One Lie After Another (8)

9. The Emperor Has No Clothes (9)

10. Canada Is Not Broken (10)

June’s Best – Coming Soon: Canada’s 100,000 MAID Death

Biggest Jump – 70. America’s Weimar Republic Moment (83)

You can find all my posts in my archive.

Top 10 Subscriber Locations

Why is this here? It’s like sports statistics, it doesn’t really matter but I find it interesting and who knows, maybe I’ll find it useful at some point.

1. Canada (1)

2. The UK (2)

3. California (2)

4. New York (5)

5. Texas (4)

6. Australia (6)

7. Virginia (7)

8. Illinois (9) and Florida (7)

9. -

10. Pennsylvania (10)

Note: the US is #1 by far but provides insight into individual states and it’s more interesting to present it that way. No other country can be broken down unfortunately.

Final Thoughts

Vacation is over so it’s time to get back at it.

I intend for my next long article to be the last regarding slavery and colonialism. In it we will finally cover the Royal Navy’s West Africa Squadron.

I promise it will be worth the wait.

Until then...

Stay salty, my friends!

And to try and laugh a little if you can.

Phil