After decades of degrading propaganda from people like Biden, the Clintons, and the Obamas, thoughtless and feckless Americans are confused. Many of them appear to believe, seriously, that the right to kill babies is saving the lives of millions of women.
I had insomnia the other night, and it so happened that my son, who leads what I suspect is a dissolutely sleepless life in London, engaged me in correspondence about a Russian poem we both knew. He wrote that he had tried to translate it into English, but “it kept coming out as a string of banalities.” So I spent the remaining small hours of the night trying to prove my son wrong, to succeed where, in my view, Vladimir Nabokov failed in his translation: Speak not, lie hidden, and conceal the way you dream, the things you feel. Deep...
The words nationalism and patriotism are often confused, and even when political theorists draw a contrast, the result is often a distinction without a difference or a bizarre twist of meaning that defies everyday usage. The modern concept of nationalism (just like the concept of internationalism) took shape during the French Revolution, which implemented Rousseau’s theory of the general will and continued the process of centralization inaugurated by the monarchy. According to 19th century nationalists, the will of the nation, defined as an historic community of blood and tongue, had to find expression in a common and unified state. ...
Ever since Charlemagne had smashed the Avars at the eastern marches of his expanding realm, agents of the Frankish empire had begun infiltrating into the northern Balkans, including the lands inhabited by the Slavic tribe of the Moravians (the ancestors of the Czechs and Slovaks). Among these agents were missionaries, for the empire of Charlemagne was a Christian empire, the true Israel in the fancy of his court theologians, and the progress of the Gospel must keep pace with the expansion of boundaries into heathendom. There was bound to be a conflict then, when heathendom meant not only the Germanic...
I stopped by Notre Dame this week to find it completely encircled by high temporary construction walls. One day it’s open for you to visit almost anytime you wish. The next day it’s closed indefinitely, with life for the residents and businesses on Ile de la Cité altered considerably. Yet there was good news the other day, with lawmakers pushing for a restoration “as it was” in opposition to the hubristic “architectural competition” that was to add a second torture to the loss. No need to remake something that didn’t need to be remade. Perhaps some may even consider the...
Campion was a practicing physician and was among the finest song-writers of the elizabethan-Jacobean era. He was both a poet and a composer, who in later years was known primarily as a music theorist. The first poem is a song loosely based on a Horatian ode. The second is a translation from Catullus. I have provided links to Lumiarium.com for recordings.
One weekend in May, Mark Beesley, who has playing host to Ken Rosenberger (Atlanta) and Robert (Geraci) lured them–dragging the Flemings in tow with the promise of beer and cheese in Monroe (Wisconsin) to the “world-famous” House on the Rock. Here is a brief account made by one of the victims, Ken Rosenberger.
In at least one respect the gentle reader must give Wednesday’s Child his due. In nearly 200 posts in this space, no mention has ever been made of “Mueller” or “Mueller’s investigation.” That is because I seek to protect the gentle reader from inconsequential twaddle, political banality, and useless names as I myself dream of being protected by some supernatural entity from all such unwelcome intrusion. However, grand jury indictments resulting from the investigation so incautiously mentioned above are unlike the investigation itself, in that they are not, as the Russians say, just “grinding water in a mortar.” Some world-class...
One of the benefits of the presidential primaries is ideas sometimes percolate to the surface. That’s the case with Andrew Yang and his $1,000 monthly Universal Income. Every citizen, from Jeff Bezos, worth $100 billion (after the divorce), and the homeless guy on the street corner would get a bank deposit of $1,000 a month. This is an old idea. Back in 1972, Democratic Nominee George McGovern promised $1,000 a year to everybody. According to the government’s inflation calculator, that comes to $6,218, about half Yang’s amount. But if you go by the price of gold, it was $72 in...
