Poem of the Week: National Anthem of Ancient Britons
What’s the use of shirts of cotton,
Studs that always get forgotten?
These affairs are simply rotten:
Better far is woad.
Yearly Archive: 2019
Dante the Man, Part I: Christianity and Classical Culture, Episode 25
Another season of Christianity and Classical Culture on the Fleming Foundation. In this first episode of what will be an ongoing exploration of Dante and the Commedia, Dr. Fleming and host Stephen Heiner first discuss some good English translations to use, then go on to first discuss Dante’s family background, then the political and religious world in which he lived. Dr. Fleming discusses Florence, Pisa, Lucca, Siena, and other Italian city-states: their relationships with each other, the Church, and foreign invaders. Dr. Fleming concludes the episode by parsing the Guelph/Ghibelline feud. Original Air Date: March 20, 2019 Show Run Time:...
Two Oinks for Democracy, Conclusion: Dealing with Muslims
Any honest evaluation of US foreign policy over the past 50 years would lead to one conclusion: Any effort to build a stable regime friendly to US interests will have to construct its programs on a population that has some understanding of the West and some institutions—religious or cultural—compatible with our own. On this basis, we can appreciate at least one of the reasons why we have chosen Israel, for all the troubles this special relationship has cost us, to be the focus of our influence in the Middle East: Israel is a European colony in the Arab and Muslim...
Wednesday’s Child: Let 20,000 Tattoos Bloom
I am often at a loss when challenged on my conclusion that diversity, in the world we inhabit today, is a synonym of conformity. My opponents in the argument make me feel like a conspiracy theorist, someone who has some truths to impart but needs a better broom to sweep them back from under the carpet and into the light of day. It’s not that he doesn’t have the facts, it’s that the facts are too many. What I want, I have often thought, is an illustration, a “meme” as is now fashionable to say, something with the simplicity of...
Why Not VA Medical Care for All?
Bernie Sanders and other socialists keep pushing Medicare for All; meaning anyone without medical insurance, even those younger than 65, could sign up for what currently is a system for geezers, including me in a year. The reason is obvious: Medicare is a popular program in which seniors generally can choose their own doctors, and which provides mostly comprehensive care, albeit often needing supplemental plans. But if they want to expand government-provided health care, why don’t Bernie and the comrades instead expand the already existing, comprehensive medical system, by far the major activity of the Veterans Administration, which already even...
Podcast: Why Lefties Don’t Breed
“The Sky Is Falling! The Sky Is Falling!” I can’t bear to bring children into this world, much less spare the time to bring them up.
Two Oinks for Democracy, Part I of II
Over the years, much of our critique of American imperialism was made on the level of principle: Preemptive wars, inherently wrong in themselves, would eventually justify the militarization of American life and the final destruction of our constitutional order. Reconstruction abroad, we argued, would inevitably justify reconstruction at home.
Wednesday’s Child: Not So Loverly
“I have never been so keyed up!” I think I won’t be very far from the truth if I say that what most Americans know of Royal Ascot is Audrey Hepburn’s rendition of this line in My Fair Lady, in 1964 the most expensive film ever made. Remember? “Ev’ry duke and earl and peer is here, ev’ryone who should be here is here,” she gavottes, At the gate are all the horses Waiting for the cue to fly away. What a gripping, absolutely ripping Moment at the Ascot op’ning day! When I lived in England, I never missed a day...
Take Five: Taxation With Representation Still Tyranny
Ruling elites, which historically collect 10-15% in duties and fees, now confiscate 50% or more of the income of hardworking men and women, robbing them of their time and their power over their lives.
Generations of Impotence, Conclusion: The Cruelty of Nerds
Like so many modern American males, the Marquis de Sade was incapable of taking pleasure in the ordinary things of life. Morally and intellectually feeble, he wallowed in fantasies of sexual violence. The history of civilization might be written as a series of social inventions for the proper application of violence: boxing matches, duels, warfare. When civilizations die, men cannot fall back on the killer instincts of barbarians who control their violence. They are like the jackdaws studied by Konrad Lorenz: Not genetically programmed to fight and kill, they do not have the ritual off-switch to stop violence, once it...
