Sunday, June 12, 2022
Well, I’m sure they also know he’s a shithead …
… and should be subject to the usual ridicule: Russian leader's bodyguards 'collect his excrement on foreign trips and take it back to Moscow' | Daily Mail Online.
Poor baby …
… Washington Post in-house spat shows we’ve gone overboard with therapeutic ‘me’ culture.
This a guy who doesn’t know what to at a buffet. He doesn’t have an eating disorder. He has a thought disorder.
Good…
… Los Angeles high school sued by Jewish parent for its 'racially divisive, anti-Semitic' curriculum | Daily Mail Online.
I can’t be the only person who is worried about the anti-Semitism on the left. The same people who accuse others of being Nazis seem to have adopted one of the real Nazis’ characteristic traits. And I’m supposed to trust them? Screwez-vous I say.
Something to think on …
I do not want merely to possess a faith, I want a faith that possesses me.
— Charles Kingsley, born on this date in 1819
Saturday, June 11, 2022
A wonderul piece …
… The English degenerate | Books | The Guardian.
Margaret Drabble really gets Powys. I read a lot of him in the “70s. I remember reading his autobiography when I lived in Germantown and being thrilled to read of his walking don Germantown Avenue. There is probably nothing in all of literature like Porius.
Be careful who you pick a fight with …
…There may be more of them than you think: The Left’s War on Christianity and Nationalism.
And some of us like to fight.
Poetry and wonder …
… Anecdotal Evidence: 'Half-Hidden from Sight'. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I’ve been a fan of de la Mare since the fourth grade, when I first read “The Listeners.” But it’s nice to be reminded of Vaughan.
Something to think on …
No man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.
— Ben Jonson, born on this date in 1572
Remembering …
… Inviting a Friend to Supper by Ben Jonson | Poetry Foundation. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Ben Jonson was born on this date in 1572,
Friday, June 10, 2022
Telling it to the gas bags …
… Mother Tells Congress Gun Control Laws Didn’t Save Her Son Because They…Do…Not…Work.
Hughes Klucken described her experience in the black community of Atlanta, Georgia, by saying, “I am walking testimony of how the criminal justice system and gun control laws (which are steeped in racism, by the way) have failed the black community. It is the curse of the black community, and something has to change. Thoughts and prayers and calls for more gun control aren’t enough. How about letting me defend myself against evil? Do you think I’m not capable or trustworthy to handle firearms? Do you think the Second Amendment does not apply to people that look like me? You who call for more gun control are the same ones that call to defund the police. Who is supposed to protect me?” she asked. “I teach people how to use firearms and empower others that look like me to understand that the Second Amendment is their right, too.”
Something to think on …
Those who created this country chose freedom. With all of its dangers. And do you know the riskiest part of that choice they made? They actually believed that we could be trusted to make up our own minds in the whirl of differing ideas. That we could be trusted to remain free, even when there were very, very seductive voices - taking advantage of our freedom of speech - who were trying to turn this country into the kind of place where the government could tell you what you can and cannot do.
— Nat Hentoff, born on this date in 1925
Thursday, June 09, 2022
Interesting and disturbing …
… A Disturbing Poll in the Aftermath of the Attempted Assassination of Brett Kavanaugh.
Perhaps the most striking aspect of the poll is the generational difference. Older men and women of either party are significantly less likely to approve of the assassination of political opponents than their younger counterparts.
I started life in North Philly. I happen to be street smart and street tough. The younger generation, so far as this old man can tell, seem to think that talk alone counts. Talk can sometimes. The guy who once came at me while opening a switchblade certainly figured out something when I positioned my walking stick (I’ve been carrying them for years) in a somewhat peculiar way and said to him in a perfect Clint Eastwood sotto voce, “Go ahead, make my day,” He figured out that I wasn’t going to hit him in the head exactly. I was going to take out one of his eyes. He folded up his knife and walked away. Smart move, fellow.
Contemporary journalism …
… The Washington Post's week from Hell | Fox News.
"The Washington Post LIED and DID NOT contact me before including me in their story on Johnny Depp, despite reporting they did so," ThatUmbrellaGuy tweeted, sharing time stamps of his tweet calling out the article and Lorenz's email to him sent minutes later.
I spent quite a few years in the newsroom. Maybe the Post should hire me to edit Lorenz. She sure sounds like she could use an editor. And by the way, this is not a criticism of Lorenz. Everybody needs an editor. Meeting deadline is not as easy a some might think. You often don’t time to check everything. That’s where the editor comes in.
Another example …
… of the worst political class in our history: Debbie Stabenow blasted for dismissing surging gas prices. Except for the fact that I do not approve of capital punishment (like Auberon Waugh I think it’s wrong to kill people) I would nominate people like this for the Ceaușescu treatment.
Something to think on …
A really interesting life has embraced everything from the most magnificent exultation to the depths of tragedy. I would say that's tremendous experience. But I wouldn't say enjoyment is an accurate summary of it.
— Marcia Davenport, born on this date in 1903
Wednesday, June 08, 2022
A strictly gay perspective …
… Commentary: Stop Saying 'LGBT' - The Ohio Star. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Until recently, being gay was a crime nearly everywhere. (It’s still a capital offense in many nations.) In the United States in living memory, gay bars were raided by police. Government employees discovered to be gay were fired unceremoniously. Until the 1980s, gays in most U.S. states could go to prison. In Idaho, the punishment was a life sentence. Not until 2003 were the last of these laws struck down by the Supreme Court. There were never such laws about transsexuals
Somebody tell YouTube …
… Former PA Congressman Pleads Guilty to Federal Election Fraud - Trump Train News.
Not all stories of voter fraud are disinformation. And they sit on no court.
Latter-day dictators …
… YouTube censors New York Post interview.
I gather that some readers of this blog think that when I link to something I must agree with tit. Well, no. I link to things I think are worth reading and considering. What a narrow-minded bastard I’d be if I only linked to what I agreed with. That’s a great way of learning nothing. People nowadays are so preoccupied with proving that they’re always right. And who is YouTube to think they have the right to overrule the First Amendment? Find another line of work, assholes. Oh, and this some plausible, if not conclusive evidence that some vote fraud took place in the 2020 election. Some courts have handed judgements regarding. Read the news, YouTube, before you issue ex cathedra judgments. God forbid they ever consider an idea they already subscribe to.
Good for them …
… Colorado Bishops Ask Lawmakers Who Back Abortion Rights to Forgo Communion | Newsmax.com.
I am a cradle Catholic. I do not have the right to pick and choose among the Church’s doctrines. If you don’t agree with one of its key doctrines and for some reason still want to go to church, find another. You might also want to check out the science (that “fetus” is genetically unique).
Maybe they weren’t so hysterical after all …
…once upon a time: Hysteria then and now in America.
There are plenty of toadies around these days who believe anything the MSM and the government hacks tell them. At least back then there were people who challenged the witch hunt were the heroes. Trust me. We will soon know how wrong the “experts” were about Covid.
Something to think on …
Everything turns out to be valuable that one does for one’s self without thought of profit.
— Marguerite Yourcenar, born on this date in 1994
Tuesday, June 07, 2022
Very thoughtful …
… The Pope of Russell Square | Commonweal Magazine. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The idea of poetic impersonality is closely related to Eliot’s self-declared classicism. The classic in Eliot’s view is not in the first place the work of an individual genius. It is rather a piece of literary art that is resonant of a specific civilization—one whose language gives voice to a particular culture and history at the peak of its maturity. The unique genius that produces it is not that of an individual author but the spirit of a particular age and a particular people. Virgil’s greatness springs from his place in the history of the Roman Empire, as well as in the evolution of the Latin language. The classical work brings a national language to a point of perfection, and its ability to do so, ironically, is what makes its appeal so universal.
This sounds worrisome …
… TWO NEW STUDIES SHOW LINK BETWEEN INCURABLE, DEGENERATIVE BRAIN DISEASE AND THE EXPERIMENTAL COVID-19 VACCINE.
Two new clinical studies – one peer-reviewed by researchers in Turkey, and one pre-print by researchers in France – have begun to establish an alarming link between an incurable, degenerative brain disease called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) and the experimental Covid-19 vaccine.
I used to be a medical editor. I am at least medically literate. But those who place their faith in the media and the government will doubtless object to this.
Something to think on …
Silences can be as different as sounds.
— Elizabet Bowen, born on this date in 1899
Just so you know …
… Judicial Watch Uncovers Dozens of Records of Illegal Molecular Research Reported to NIH | Judicial Watch.
The documents … showed that the research, which occurred at Biosafety Level 1/2/3 laboratories, led to dozens of dangerous mishaps, accidents, and spills.
Monday, June 06, 2022
Pilgrim’s way …
… A Pint with C.S. Lewis: ‘The Most Reluctant Convert’. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The Most Reluctant Convert begins and ends by shattering the so-called “fourth wall,” the one between the actors and the audience. Mr. McLean – as C.S. Lewis – walks right out of makeup, passed technicians and cameras and lighting devices, and, looking straight at us, begins to tell the great author’s story. At the conclusion, he walks out of Lewis’s own Oxford home, The Kilns, and receives the film crew’s much-deserved applause.
Surprise, surprise …
… The lockdowns were a failure.
Far from a 99% reduction, the researchers found that COVID-19 mortality was reduced by 3.2% by the average lockdown in Europe and the U.S. in the spring of 2020, 2.0% by shelter-in-place orders and 10.8% by specific non-pharmaceutical interventions such as school and workplace closures, travel restrictions and border closures
Something to think on …
It is love, not reason, that is stronger than death.
— Thomas Mann, born on this date in 1875
Sunday, June 05, 2022
Something to think on …
The events of childhood do not pass but repeat themselves like seasons of the year.
— Eleanor Farjeon, who died on this date in 1965
Have a blessed Pentecost …
…Tomorrow is Whit Sunday. On a day just like today, Philip Larkin was late getting away to take the train, and wrote 'The Whitsun Weddings' - Mail Online - Peter Hitchens blog. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Which brings me to my first text for this evening, from the great religious poet, Philip Larkin. Larkin is religious precisely because he very much did not mean to be, but he was. He was of God’s party without knowing it.
Saturday, June 04, 2022
He’s right …
… Second Circuit Judge José Cabranes on "Deeply Troubling Aspects of Contemporary University Procedures".
If they dumped the administrators, college would cost less and students might actually get their money’s worth.
Luckily for me …
… I live in South Philly: Pizza Hut features 'drag kids' book for children as young as kindergarten | Fox News.
They make real pizza here. And most of us aren’t woke. I hope they go broke.
The mystery of memory …
… (A)phantasia and severely deficient autobiographical memory: Scientific and personal perspectives. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
…the process of science is not just deduction by individuals but construction by a community. The remarkable geometric abilities of some blind mathematicians such as Morin have given insight into the varieties of mathematical imagination and quite how diverse this community is. Morin himself noted that “disabilities like blindness, ... reinforce one’s gifts and one’s deficits” and has drawn attention to two sorts of mathematical imagination: “time-like” which deals with information by proceeding through a series of steps, at which he was not good, a deficit worsened by blindness, and “space-like” which allows one to comprehend information all at once, at which he excelled (Lawrence, 2002).
Something to think on …
Metaphysical problems do not haunt man so that he will solve them, but so that he will live them.
— Don Colacho
Just so you know …
… The US ‘Has the Most Mass Shootings’—and Other Bogus Gun Research.
It turns out that not only did the U.S. not have the most frequent mass shootings, it was No. 62 on the list, lower than places like Norway, Finland, and Switzerland.
Friday, June 03, 2022
A must-read …
… “I See the City Not as It’s Become”: On Adam Kirsch’s “The Discarded Life.” (Hat tip, an odd character who might be a librarian.)
I just bought the book.
Something to think on …
Mystery is underrated, and understanding is overrated.
— Larry McMurtry, born on this date in 1936
Blogging note …
Once again, i must be out and about early. I have a couple of appointments this mornin. So blogging will resume sometime later today.
Thursday, June 02, 2022
Necessary truths …
… Oh, the Place You’ll Go! —Parting Verse for a Graduating Class. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
A wonderful tale …
… When Maeve Binchy met Samuel Beckett: ‘He thinks the play is a song, or a long rhythmic poem.’ (Hat tip, Dave Lull)
Appreciation …
… Celebrating William F. Buckley | FrontpageMag. (Hat tip, tip, Dave Lull.)
It’s interesting to note that several of these men, although diametrically at odds with Buckley on almost all political issues, were far from being his enemies. Macdonald was a yachting chum. Mailer was a pal. And Galbraith, despite the brickbats they frequently hurled at each other min print, was a man for whom Buckley felt immense affection. These ties of amity can seem baffling, to say the least. Mailer, after all, admired Castro, while Galbraith esteemed Mao - views that, one would expect, could not have filled Buckley with anything other than outrage. How, then, to explain these friendships?
I met Bill a number of times, long after I turned 9. I once had dinner with him. The explanation is that he was one of the most perfect gentlemen I have ever know. I learned much from him about how you go about being a gentleman.
Something to think on …
The main object of religion is not to get a man into heaven, but to get heaven into him.
— Thomas Hardy. Born on this date in 1840
Wednesday, June 01, 2022
This may be the dumbest thing I have ever read …
… in fact, I couldn’t finish reading it: Left-wing writer mocks turning to God in response to Uvalde massacre with 'faith that allowed brutal enslavement to be the law of the land' - TheBlaze.
Some of the best conversations I’ve had in my life have been with people who did not share my faith. But we respected each other and wanted to learn from each other. I learned, from time to time, that there were nuances to their thought that I had been unaware of and might just learn something from. They often told me they had missed something about faith that they should have noticed. That’s called dialogue. More people these days should try it. Apparently this guy has never wondered if maybe the Original Sin hypothesis has an awful lot of evidence in support thereof.
Good for them …
… Top Russian Military Brass Caught Venting: ‘You’re Fucked, Putin—Motherfucker!’
“There are horrible losses of our guys, fuck. And you know, I am familiar with military history a bit, and I compare this to the fucking Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940. It’s fucking one and the same,” said Vlasov, referring to a war in which the Soviets are estimated to have lost 126,875 troops.
Something to think on…
God warms his hands at man's heart when he prays.
— John Masefield, born on this date in 1878
Blogging note …
I have an appointment this morning to get cortisone shots for my knees. So I won’t be blogging again until later today.
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