AK

This website (akarlin.com) contains all the blog/website archives I have been able to get my hands on, everything that is too minor to go to my Substack but too big to just Tweet out, life observations and events, and most of my book reviews and travel writing.

Last Word On Chavez

This about Politics, tagged , , was written by for on March 9, 2013 .1 Comment

When I said this post would be “the last post” on the matter, I meant posts written by myself. 🙂 Alexander Mercouris’ was too good to pass up, so it is reprinted here: Any discussion of Chavez must explain why he was (to his detractors) such a terrible man. He was a terrible man because […]

A Few Myths About Chavez’s Venezuela

This about Economy, tagged , , was written by for on March 9, 2013 .6 Comments

Okay, I promise this will be the last post on the matter. But some of the tropes that come up time and time again in coverage of Chavez’s legacy, from neocons and faux-leftists alike, just have to be addressed for me to rest easy. Note that this is NOT meant to be comprehensive; just some […]

Samuel Moncada, Venezuela’s Ambassador In London, Personally Responds To Emails

This about Politics, tagged , , was written by for , on March 8, 2013 .No Comments

Not sure you can say that of many national ambassadors! This is what I wrote to this email for expressing condolences on Chavez’s passing: After a heroic battle with cancer, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías has shuffled off this mortal coil, but his dream will endure forever and continue giving hope unto the hearts of men and women all […]

Hugo Chávez Shuffles Off This Mortal Coil, But The Light Of The Bolivarian Revolution He Ignited Will Endure Forever

This about Politics, tagged , was written by for on March 5, 2013 .2 Comments

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08cD7-MYaJo We all suspected this would come sooner or later. As it happens, Chavez struggled heroically against his cancer, confounding the intensive Schadenfreude and concerted death wishes of his loathsome detractors month after arduous month. But this is what you can expect to get when you look out for your own countrymen and stand up to […]

I Don’t Care About Bradley Manning

This about Society, tagged , , was written by for on February 28, 2013 .8 Comments

No matter how you look at it, he is a traitor. He violated the UCMJ. Although he is free to make ethical arguments as to why he leaked Collateral Murder and the US Embassy cables, the US is fully within its rights to prosecute him. I’m quite consistent about this: Treason is a punishable offense, no matter […]

What Happens If The US/Israel Attack Iran?

This about Geopolitics, tagged , , , was written by for on February 26, 2013 .6 Comments

It might happen this June or later, reports RT citing Israeli media. Obama and Netanyahu are at least discussing the prospect. In previous years I was sure that it would happen eventually, probably before year end 2012. That is because that was the most convenient window between the fielding of the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (early 2012) and […]

Much Ado About Rape: Quantifying A Big Taboo

This about Society, tagged , , , was written by for on February 23, 2013 .19 Comments

The past two days I had the pleasure of observing the blowout over a post by blogger Matt Forney about rape – or more precisely, about “how to rape women and get away with it.” It’s completely satirical, quite funny, and one can’t help but by impressed by the size of the balls (no homo) […]

Flynn Effect DOES Apply To South Korea

This about HBD, tagged , , , was written by for on February 18, 2013 .1 Comment

Regular readers of this blog may remember my comments regarding Ron Unz’s theory that East Asians have high IQ’s independent of time/nutrition/urbanization whatever it is that causes the Flynn Effect. Here is his original article on his theory of the “East Asian Exception” and my two responses are here and here. Anyway a new paper […]

Why Homosexuality Shouldn’t Be Promoted

This about Society, tagged , , was written by for on February 17, 2013 .23 Comments

I knew that gays had a maybe five or even ten times higher chance of getting AIDS and other STD’s than heterosexuals. I didn’t know the differential was actually more like 50. Something like 20% of the US gay population (which makes up 3.5% of its total population) is HIV positive. It is 5% in the […]

Antisocial Punishment: Why China Will Defeat Corruption, But Russia And The Arabs Won’t

This about HBD, tagged , , , , was written by for on February 15, 2013 .7 Comments

One of the books I’ve been reading lately is Steven Pinker’s massive door-stopper The Better Angels of Our Nature. Incidentally, I found it a very interesting read with tons of cool factoids, although it could have done with a third of its text and a tiny fraction of its liberal sanctimonious. But that’s for the […]

Navigating The Collapse Map – Transhuman On The Dark Mountain

This about Futurism, tagged , , was written by for on February 8, 2013 .3 Comments

Heard of the political compass? Well, one enviro person compiled something similar for those who seriously entertain the possibility that industrial civilization will collapse. (H/t Mark Sleboda for pointing me to it.) Needless to say, the “deniers” are almost as absurd as the “rapturists.” All the business as usual scenarios lead to collapse by mid-century. […]

Five Years Of Blogging

This about Blogging, tagged , was written by for on January 24, 2013 .7 Comments

It all began on January 9, 2008. It began, as it is now, as Da Russophile over at blogger. And I was a Russophile then, perhaps unreasonably so. That said I did do some useful work back then. I am most proud of the demographic models by which I predicted: Russia will see positive population growth starting from 2010 […]