Thersites the Historian
Published 31 Mar 2025In this episode, we look at the invasion and overrun of most of southern Britain by newcomers from the European mainland, who set the stage for the transformation of that region into the Kingdom of England. We also explore the thorny issue of what a dark age is and why the label fits in the case of Britain.
October 8, 2025
History of Britain IX: New Arrivals in the British Dark Age: Angles, Saxons, and Jutes
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Sentenced for their role in the largest peaceful demonstration in Canadian history
The longest “mischief” trial in Canadian history finally concluded on Tuesday with Chris Barber and Tamara Lich receiving much lighter sentences than the crown had asked for, but in my opinion, far harsher than justice demanded:
One of the readers at Small Dead Animals got a clanker to summarize this: “Regarding the convictions of Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, compare their trials and sentences to leftwing protesters who have openly and violently broken laws in Canada.”
In comparison, left-wing protesters in Canada involved in violent or disruptive actions — such as anti-pipeline blockades (often tied to environmental and Indigenous rights causes) or Black Lives Matter (BLM) demonstrations against racism and police violence — have typically faced shorter trials and lighter sentences for similar or more destructive offenses. These cases often involve civil disobedience escalating to property damage, blockades, or clashes with police, but convictions emphasize non-violent intent or police misconduct, leading to minimal incarceration.
Overall, Lich and Barber’s cases drew unusually aggressive prosecution (e.g., multi-year sentences sought) despite no violence, contrasting with lighter outcomes for left-wing actions involving property destruction or direct confrontations. This disparity has fueled debates on selective enforcement, though courts in both contexts prioritize deterrence while considering protest motivations.
Unlike a lot of clanker slop, that is pretty fair. More reactions on the social media site formerly known as Twitter:
In the Toronto Sun, Joe Warmington accurately calls it a “show trial of sorts”:
Even though this is far better than making these two go to prison or jail, these are still stiff sentencing considering neither were violent during the Convoy and both worked with police to tone things down during the three week protest that came to an end when the Trudeau government invoked the Emergencies Act.
But this was a show trial of sorts, and Lich and Barber were political prisoners. Remember, both of these people have had the hardship of waiting 1,328 days through the longest mischief trial in Canadian history to get to this point. They had their bank accounts frozen during the convoy, Lich lost her job and Barber’s business is at risk of going under. A hearing is scheduled for next month in an effort to seize his famous “Big Red” truck.
It’s also lost on few that so many criminals with far more serious crimes have received far less in terms of length of trial, effort of the Crown and sentencing.
These are certainly stiffer sentences than some parliamentarians have received. For example, in 2021, Former Liberal Kitchener South-Hespeler MP Marwan Tabbara was handed a conditional discharge and put on probation for three years after his guilty plea was entered for two charges of assault on a man and a woman in Guelph. He also pleaded guilty to the amended charge of “unlawfully” being “in a dwelling” or home.
Conservative Sen. Patrick Brazeau was given an absolute discharge in 2015 on his guilty plea to assault and narcotics counts, which allowed him not to serve time or gain a criminal record. But while they did avoid jail time, Lich and Barber did get the book thrown at them harder than most.
Update, 9 October: Welcome, Instapundit readers! Please do have a look around at some of my other posts you may find of interest. I send out a daily summary of posts here through my Substack – https://substack.com/@nicholasrusson that you can subscribe to if you’d like to be informed of new posts in the future.
The Korean War Week 68: Aussies Take the Lead In Operation Commando – October 7, 1951
The Korean War by Indy Neidell
Published 7 Oct 2025Omar Bradley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, arrives in Korea to see the war for himself. At the same time, UN forces launch new offensives — Operation Touchdown at Heartbreak Ridge and Operation Commando to the west. Both promise heavy fighting, but can they finally break the stalemate?
#KoreanWar #HeartbreakRidge #OperationCommando #OmarBradley
Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:54 Recap
01:16 Bradley and Bohlen
02:17 Operation Touchdown
05:07 Heartbreak Ridge
08:44 Operation Commando
11:20 The Cavalry Attacks
14:49 The Commonwealth Division
16:03 Summary
16:18 Conclusion
(more…)
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Rush returns – Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson announce new tour for 2026
The announcement video popped up yesterday on YouTube, as Lee and Lifeson announce the decision to bring Rush back after a decade of retirement (triggered by the death of Neil Peart in 2015). In the National Post, Colby Cosh discusses the much-anticipated return:
Rush in concert, Milan 2004.
Photo by Enrico Frangi, via Wikimedia Commons
The inevitable has happened: Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, the living members of the legendary Canadian band Rush, have announced that they will go on a brief concert tour in 2026. They will, perhaps controversially, go out on the road as Rush rather than adopting some sort of “Lifeson and Lee and Friends” branding. The circumstances of the announcement are familiar ones: Rush had a spectacular farewell tour in 2015, with their renowned drummer Neil Peart increasingly overwhelmed by his own phenomenally intricate parts and his remorseless perfectionism. Peart died of glioblastoma in 2020, which seemed to put a permanent seal on the group.
Over the years, eleventy thousand rock bands have mourned (or just fired) a drummer and moved on, but Neil Peart was NEIL PEART. If you ever watched the crowd at a classic Rush concert, fans doing air-drumming always outnumbered the ones doing air guitar about a hundred to one. Rush in its heyday was an austere three-piece that eschewed sidemen, guest performers, and cover versions on stage almost to the point of dogmatism. They will inevitably feel incomplete or weird with a stand-in for Peart. But Lifeson and Lee say they have been playing Rush songs together privately, and that they are in good health.
They are at the apex of their own individual professions as players, especially Geddy, and … well, a looser, more open, less thoroughly programmed live Rush is something some of us have always wished for, or at least thought about. Variety‘s coverage of the announcement, delivered on Sunday at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, reveals something almost as surprising as a Peartless Rush: they’re going to tour with a keyboard player! (Other papers are breaking the news as you read this, but Variety had the advance scoop, and has the most extensive coverage of the prospective tour.)
The question on the mind of every Rush fan, of course, is who could possibly step into the shoes (and drum kit) of Neil Peart? That would be a daunting task for any drummer, but Lee and Lifeson think that Anika Nilles will be up to the challenge. I hope she will.
If skeptics visit her YouTube channel and click randomly, they won’t need more than a few seconds to spot her technical credentials for playing Rush songs: she’s inhumanly precise and seems positively allergic to playing in 4/4. Don’t look down, Anika.
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QotD: Porn is always in the vanguard of new technologies
I remember seeing something years ago that commented on how soon after the development of photography we got pictures of naked women.
5 Florins says after Gutenberg invented the printing press and mass printed the Bible, guys were buying presses and cranking out copies of Thee Hornee Shepard and Thee Shye But Readye Milkmaide. 😍
(“T’would say it be a bodice ripper, but we’ve not invented bodices yet” – Johannes of Cologne, Ye Cologne Courier Newspapere)
mmack, commenting on “Why the Internet Stinks Now”, Founding Questions, 2025-07-03.
Update, 9 October: Welcome, Instapundit readers! Please do have a look around at some of my other posts you may find of interest. I send out a daily summary of posts here through my Substack – https://substack.com/@nicholasrusson that you can subscribe to if you’d like to be informed of new posts in the future.
