John Derbyshire

* September 2001: Radical Muslims fly planes into the World Trade Center, killing 3,000 people. * 2001-2026: Successive U.S. governments open up the country to settlement by unprecidentedly great numbers of Muslims. The number of mosques goes from dozens to thousands. * November 2026: Muslims -- including outspoken radical Muslims -- are voted into positions of legislative and judicial power all over the U.S.A. ------------- Make it make sense.

The 2026 Nobel Prize in literature went to Canadian poet Anne Carson. If you want to sample her verse, fans of REAL poetry have been tossing and goring it on X teapaw.org/ProfGrewal/status/2108… My own reaction is the common one: If this is poetry, what is NOT poetry? You want poetry? I got poetry. How about a sestina? You're welcome. johnderbyshire.com/Readings/…

My kids are in their thirties now, so I'm out of touch with the high-school curriculum. Do today's students hear anything about the horrors of 20th-century socialism? About 1970s Cambodia, for example? Back in 2000 I reviewed David Chandler's book about the Tuol Sleng interrogation center. Here is the closing paragraph of my review. "Professor Chandler has done his work well, with the frank objectivity that is the only possible approach to such a catalog of madness. This is a necessary book, but a profoundly dismaying and depressing one. Its message is simple: never, ever let middle-class revolutionary intellectuals take control of your country. If by mischance they do, run like hell." johnderbyshire.com/Reviews/C…

I'm just reading Dennis Duncan's 2021 book INDEX, A HISTORY OF THE amazon.com/Index-History-Adv… No typo there: that's the name of the book. It's a history of indexes in books. And yes, before you ask, it has an index itself. Lots of curious facts here. I've chugged along these past few decades assuming that the only work of fiction that includes an index as part of itself (I mean, not added by an editor for some study edition) was Nabokov's PALE FIRE. Nah-uh, there are lots of them. Lewis Carroll wrote one. Lewis Carroll! (Although, as Dennis Duncan observes, "entries in the SYLVIE AND BRUNO index lean determinedly towards the whimsical.") Duncan's book caught my eye because I myself once compiled a book index. The book I was indexing was neither fiction nor nonfiction but a humongous two-volume catalogue. My index covered 42 pages in different languages and alphabets. Sample page here johnderbyshire.com/Miscellan… Back story to my indexing adventure here johnderbyshire.com/FamilyAlb…

I agree with Niall Ferguson: this Bill Maher item is a gem teapaw.org/billmaher/status/21138… The original communists told us we were heading for class warfare. What we're speeding towards right now looks more like age warfare. Might it get ugly -- uglier than in France today? In Aldous Huxley's novel BRAVE NEW WORLD (if I remember it right), citizens who reached the age of 60 were hustled off to a euthanasia facility. Might that policy soon be a vote-getter? (NB: I'm 81.)

What's my take on the Russia-Ukraine War? My primary take remains the one I voiced in April 2022, when the war was new. This was, I pointed out -- with supporting statistics -- a war between the world's two most corrupt white nations. johnderbyshire.com/Opinions/… That's likely still true, but I haven't checked the stats recently. I liked that descriptor so much I went on using it in my weekly podcast until I hung up my mike in June 2025.

If the woke biases in Wikipedia annoy you, be aware (if you're not already -- I always come late to these parties) that Elon Musk has given us an alternative: Grokipedia. Here's the entry for me: grokipedia.com/page/John_Der…

Blimey! My post exposing the awfulness of Greyhound buses teapaw.org/DissidentRight/status/… has gathered 85 comments. That's more than Desikishu's video clip about the mermaid whose tail came off. teapaw.org/desikishu/status/21054… (and most of HIS comments were from himself). It's way more than my usual low-single-digits score. I don't think I shall ever get the hang of social media.

Very sorry to see my President pandering to the parasites and crooks at Hesperophobia Hall johnderbyshire.com/Opinions/…

The news about recent advances in Artificial Intelligence has mathematicians slitting their wrists all over. AI is impressively good at math. Do we still need human mathematicians? Most recently, earlier this month, OpenAI claimed that one of their models had cracked the Navier-Stokes equation. (All right: "equations," if you want to be fussy.) As much as a lay person needs to know about Navier-Stokes was covered in my Straggler No. 117 column last year: johnderbyshire.com/Opinions/… (The relevant paragraph is the one beginning "So: turbulence ahead.") Has OpenAI really cracked Navier-Stokes? My buddy Sergiu Klainerman, writing on the Heterodox STEM substack, says not: "In truth, what the machine did was to settle a much weaker version of the problem." hxstem.substack.com/p/ai-wil… So: impressive? certainly, but not final. Sergiu again: "There are many risks associated with the uses and misuses of AI. The extinction of mathematics as a human endeavor is not among them." Math geeks, put away those razor blades.

Peter Brimelow reports that "The VDARE Foundation just got yet MORE bad news in its lawfare hell, which has now lasted nearly four and a half years." This latest bad news is a ruling by a federal judge (Biden appointee, natch) essentially pushing VDARE's claims that their Free Speech rights have been violated back to New York State for judgment. A senior officer in that state's judiciary has already boasted -- in public! (Peter supplies the video) -- of using lawfare to suppress opinions the state Attorney General disapproves of. peterbrimelow.com/p/do-feder…

One or more brutish, leering, low-class, tobacco-chewing white men -- crackers -- hunt down and murder a harmless black man for no good reason at all. Has this actually happened in the U.S.A.? Maybe, I don't know. What I **do** know is that this narrative -- I have called it "the Romance of American Blackness" (see e.g. Chapter Three here amazon.com/Essential-John-De… ) -- holds mighty power over our collective imagination. If any black-white confrontation whatsoever concludes with one or more dead blacks but no dead whites, the true facts of the event will be deformed -- squeezed, trimmed, molded, augmented -- as necessary to fit the Romantic narrative. Facts that can't be made to fit the narrative will be mocked and discarded, or just ignored, by legal and media coverage. One of the most outrageous instances of this has been the case of the Brunswick Three: father and son Greg and Travis McMichael and their neighbor Roddie Bryan, all of Brunswick, Georgia. The Three were white; the deceased black in the case was 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery; the confrontation took place in February 2020. The true facts of the case have been told several times. Two of the best accounts (i.e. most indignant) have been by Jared Taylor ("How Horrible Is the Arbery/McMichael Verdict?" -- tinyurl.com/2uputxwd at American Renaissance, November 26th, 2021) and Jack Cashill ("Woke Justice at Its Most Horrifying—the Ahmaud Arbery Case" -- tinyurl.com/2uputxwd at The American Spectator in February last year. An appalling instance of the Romance of American Blackness,, the case of the Brunswick Three is a shame on our nation, particularly on the state of Georgia, most particularly on Judge Timothy Walmsley, who presided over the show trial for the Three. An old friend of mine gets emailed updates from Leigh McMichael (Greg's wife, Travis's Mom) and passes them on to me. Here is the latest, from last week. Leigh has mis-spelled "Walmsley," but given what the swine has put her through I'm surprised she can bear to write his name at all. ------------------------------------ I know it has been a while, but we have been in limbo waiting for Judge Wamsley to issue a decision on a new trial. He finally decided against a new trial around May. Since we anticipated his decision, we were prepared to appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court. The Georgia Supreme Court put our case on the docket Monday August third; also, Judge Wamsley wrote a resignation letter to Governor Kemp the same day. Judge Wamsley will leave on September 1 to work for a large firm in Atlanta, Georgia. This is a big deal for us because if the Georgia Supreme Court throws out our case, we will go before a different judge. I pray for someone who is fair and ethical. Regarding the Federal case, Travis's lawyer has taken it to the U.S. Supreme Court. Greg's lawyer refused. He stated that he was only obligated to take the case before the 11th circuit appellant court. Greg and Travis both had Court appointed lawyers because we did not have enough money. I have one more option for Greg and Travis in the Federal Court and I am currently seeking a lawyer for that option. Costs are $70,000 to $100,000, and I need 2. I am doing my best to work out payment plans or whatever I can. I will not give up! It is my understanding that the FBI agents who worked on our case received an Attorney General award from Marit Garland. I do not think I would be too proud to receive any award from that corrupt man. It is amazing the promotions and awards given to people who worked to send 3 innocent men to prison. The head of the GBI during our case, Vic Reynolds, was promoted to Superior court Judge in Marietta, Georgia, by Governor Kemp. I remember seeing a documentary on him when he received his promotion. Reynolds stated that our case definitely contributed to this promotion. He spoke of how ethical the GBI is. "If you mess up, you fess up," he stated. This is a man who investigated a "crime" for 24 hours and decided that it was Malice Murder. This is after a 3-month investigation by Local police and a DA who determined self-defense. This is also a man who refused to investigate the election fraud in Fulton County during the 2020 election. He stated there was enough evidence to investigate but did not. David Purdue, Ga. Senator, was asked in front of the grand jury why Vic Reynolds didn't have the GBI investigate the election fraud if he believed there was enough evidence to investigate it. Purdue's answer was that Reynolds stated Governor Kemp told him not to investigate and Reynolds replied, "I am a team player." Sounds pretty ethical and also explains a lot about our case. Greg and Travis are doing well. Both are at peace. I do not know how they are holding it together except by the grace of God. Greg's health is holding up. He has had to have several teeth pulled and has lost quite a bit of weight, but he is in good spirits and that is what matters. He is still in isolation. He gets out of his cell three times a week for a shower and a call to me. I see him monthly. We are not allowed contact visits. We are both hard of hearing, so we sit with glass between us and scream. It is kind of funny. The warden has let Greg know that as long as he is there, we will never be allowed a contact visit. We accept that. I am thankful that I get to spend 2 hours with him once a month and for 15 min. conversations 3 times a week. Travis never ceases to amaze me. He has the strongest faith of anyone I have ever met. He keeps me on tract. He will not allow me to become bitter or angry. He lets me know that anger only harms me. I talk to Travis frequently. He is also still in isolation. He gets out for a shower 3 times a week, but he can have more frequent calls. The guard has a phone they can roll into his cell. I see Travis 2 times a year because he is so far away. We get an all-day visit. I can buy him lunch from the prison kitchen. He is so thrilled and thankful to get Chicken nuggets and fries. I usually give him mine also. It's amazing the things you miss when you do not have access to them. Travis still has his wonderful sense of humor. I laugh so hard when I get to see him that my jaw hurts. Travis has wonderful friends who stay in close contact with me. Even those Travis were in the Coast Guard with whom I have never met stay in contact with me. They all love Travis and miss him. Travis still talks with his son daily. I am continuing the fight. I miss them terribly, but I still have hope. I see my Grandson whenever I want. His Mom and Stepdad are wonderful. He has a little brother now who calls me Gamgam also. He will be spending a week at the end of August with me. He will be 10 in September, and he is my heart. He is so much like his Dad. He is so funny and very smart. He Loves to learn. . Things are moving slowly in the right direction. Hopefully, my next update will be better news. Thank you for your continued support and prayers. Leigh McMichael

Any positives from our Great Rail Journeys vacation? Sure. (1) I've been suffering from back pain. For that, a railroad vacation is, er, just the ticket. You can't do much on a long train journey but sit on the couch or in the Observation Car watching the landscape go by, or reading. PLUS the hours-long clickety-click rhythms of a train's wheels are the ideal insomnia cure. (2) Watching the landscape go by is instructive. Ours is a H-U-G-E country, most of it empty. We sort of know that, but to be visually reminded of it hour by hour from the other side of a window is ... instructive. (3) The stopover night between ride 1 (New York to Chicago) and ride 2 (Chicago to Seattle) was at the Palmer House Hilton hotel on East Monroe Street in Chicago, "the longest continuously operating hotel in North America" historichotels.org/us/hotels… What a beautiful place! PH Hilton is high class without being at all snooty. (Hey, I'm working-class British, I can spot snooty at 500 yards.) The building is impressively elegant, staff uniformly cheerful, courteous, and efficient, prices not extravagant. The young Vladimir Nabokov, as soon as he attained fame and fortune, moved to the Montreux Palace Hotel in Switzerland and lived there till he died. He said that all his life he'd considered his ideal residence to be a large, comfortable hotel. It's a bit late for me; but if Fortune comes my way I'll happily settle for the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago as my final home.