News of the Week for June 23rd, 2024
News of the Week for June 23rd, 2024
In the hopes of encouraging a more civil, and illuminating, discourse, here is another episode of William F. Buckley, Jr.’s “Firing Line”.
Violence is nothing new to radical politics, and the 1960s were well known for political assassinations. Forty years ago William F. Buckley, Jr. discussed such a murder case with Warren Herendeen and Muihammad Azīz, who discussed the death of Malcolm X.
Another “quick takes” on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on.
The focus this time: They want us to blame ourselves; that makes it easier for them to dominate more and more and more.
First, a little mood music:
Carrying on…
We’ve been told by some that Ukraine is a “peripheral” interest of the U.S. and we shouldn’t insert ourselves in what is a core interest of Russia. So, is the Caribbean also a core interest of Russia and only a peripheral one of the U.S.?
“Russia is preparing to deploy aircraft and combat naval vessels to the Caribbean to conduct military exercises in the coming weeks, its first exercises in the Western Hemisphere involving both air and sea activity in five years, a senior administration official told McClatchy and the Miami Herald.
“…
“The official said the administration expects Moscow will ‘conduct heightened naval and air activity near the United States’ that will likely include port calls by combat naval vessels in Cuba, and possibly Venezuela — two longstanding Russian allies that have seen occasional visits from Russian naval assets in the past two decades. The exercises may also include “aircraft deployments” and flights in the region, the official said.
“Administration officials suspect that Cuba approved the Russian port call ‘at least in part’ over an incident last year in which a U.S. nuclear submarine docked at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, angering the Cubans, a second U.S. official said.”
According to post-modern historians, every historical figure was gay, lesbian, or somehow queer (unless they are a designated evil personage, in which case they are straight). This now included Alfred the Great. The evidence? Using passive grammar in modern English translations (and not the grammar of Old English, which is quite different).
Found a historian arguing that Alfred the Great was gay… or gay-ish, maybe?… because he said the past ‘came to mind’, “a strangely passive construction.” This means he “models bottomy historiography,” somehow. pic.twitter.com/8W9N9Gbcrd
— Wylfċen (@wylfcen) June 4, 2024
The article is called “Skeletons in the Closet: Scholarly Erasure of Queer and Trans Themes in Early Medieval English Texts” by Erik Wade.
News of the Week for June 16th, 2024
Happy Flag Day!
With the nonsensical hullabaloo over Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito flying the “An Appeal to Heaven” flag on his own property, it’s time to repost this Flag Day post from a decade ago.
The “Appeal to Heaven” flag, also knows as Pine Tree Flag “was used originally by a squadron of six cruisers commissioned under George Washington’s authority as commander in chief of the Continental Army in October 1775.”
“The phrase is a particular expression of the right of revolution used by British philosopher John Locke’s in Second Treatise on Civil Government which was published in 1690 as part of Two Treatises of Government refuting the theory of the divine right of kings.”
Another “quick takes” on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on.
The focus this time: At least they love their work, right?
First, a little mood music:
Carrying on…
Is it any surprise that Canada has the doctor who will do anything to kill?
“If authorities — ever so gently — try to enforce the rules, euthanasia advocates and medical associations warn that it will chill doctors from dispatching patients. We’ve seen that pattern followed repeatedly in Netherlands — and now in Quebec, where authorities asked doctors to please, please, please, stay within the law, which is very loose already. From the CBC story:
“‘The memo reminds doctors of several guidelines, including that requests due to old age do not meet provincial criteria for the procedure, and an independent opinion from a second doctor isn’t a formality — it’s a requirement. Bureau said any deviation from the rules can be a slippery slope, especially as the commission is seeing an increasing number of requests for MAID.’
“It’s just too ridiculous. The slippery slope is already slip-sliding away. This is precisely how it works.”
One of the most noticeable changes in politics has been the rise in emotionalism. Oh, there have always been passionate people in politics, on both sides. The Left and the Democratic party has certainly had their share, with plenty of examples from lunatic Gaia worshippers who hate mankind to the recent campus take-overs by Jew-hating “anti-colonialism” agitators and their useful tools.
The Right, however, has not been immune to this. Rather than mere passion, there has been a rise in an intense emotional need of so many who got into politics in the last decade in the Republican party or assorted fringe groups. Politics, for them, have become less about having a passion to effect change but a personal psychological need amongst so many.
Some simply finally saw through the thinning ablative armor of social norms to finally see the consequences of the Left’s long march through the institutions. Others simply refuse to take the long road and wish to bring it all down in the delusion that they not only will necessarily be the ones to rebuild society, but that they can themselves become intelligent designers of the immanentized eschaton—a rather Leftist belief that.
It is many in that later group, particularly the ones who either that can conquer and impose, or have just given up and need to scratch that proverbial itch to achieve emotional catharsis, that is dangerous to America remaining a going concern. Yes, the Left have had such people en masse, and had them for longer than the Right in any appreciable numbers (or at least the political impact thereof), but the Left has learned to control and use this excess emotionalism to the ends of the more sober and strategic amongst them. The Right, being more new to this, have let the smaller fringe have full freedom to emote and range in all their sound and fury, while allowing them an outsized voice and impact.
This need to say “screw it all” and and destroy your enemies and what your enemies have is very reminiscent of an event that happened twenty years ago this month: The Killdozer.
In the hopes of encouraging a more civil, and illuminating, discourse, here is another episode of William F. Buckley, Jr.’s “Firing Line”.
Fifty years ago the United States was suffering inflation, with food prices exceeding general inflation numbers. Fifty years ago, the question of Russia and the need for a supply of wheat and grains was of geopolitical importance. Today, we have inflation, with food prices ecceeding general inflation numbers, and the geopolitical issue of Russia and the one of the major breadbaskets of the world, Ukraine. Let us look back half-a-century ago when William F. Buckley, Jr. and Morton I. Sosland discussed Russia and the food crisis.
Another “quick takes” on items where there is too little to say to make a complete article, but is still important enough to comment on.
The focus this time: Maybe it’s time we should retake the asylums from the inmates?
First, a little mood music:
Carrying on…
Even if something isn’t racist, it’s still racist, at least at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
“A scheduled ‘picnic’ sponsored by the University of Nevada Las Vegas law school’s Environmental Law Society has been renamed ‘Lunch by the Lake’ due to ‘diversity and inclusion’ concerns.
“According to a memo obtained by Libs of TikTok, the law group informed members that the word ‘picnic’ has “historical and offensive connotations,” and apologized for ‘any harm or discomfort’ caused by its use.
“The group’s view mirrors that of the University of Michigan’s IT department from several years ago: ‘Picnic’ was included in a ‘Words Matter Task Force’s’ list of offensive words and phrases along with ‘brown bag,’ ‘blacklist’ and ‘long time, no see’ among others.
“At the time, Reuters did a fact check on the alleged offensiveness of ‘picnic’; its verdict: It ‘does not originate from racist lynchings’ but instead comes from the 300-plus-year-old French word ‘pique-nique,’ meaning a potluck-like social gathering.”