Author: Thomas Fleming

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Uncategorized

10 Sep, 2020

Poem: Hateful is the dark-blue sky

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I think I listened to this on an Audibe book the second night in the hospital. A real cheerer-upper, as Holden Caulfield would say Alfred. Lord Tennyson From “The Lotos-Eaters”) Hateful is the dark-blue sky, Vaulted o’er the dark-blue sea. Death is the end of life; ah, why Should life all labor be? Let us alone. Time driveth onward fast, And in a little while our lips are dumb. Let us alone. What is it that will last? And things are taken from us, and become Portions and parcels of the dreadful past. Let us alone. What pleasure can we...

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Uncategorized

9 Sep, 2020

Reports of My Demise

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Most recipients of this message will know that I have been held in durance vile, for the past six days, as a prisoner of the International Medical-Industrial Complex. Yesterday after the lunch I did not eat, I returned home from Swedish-American Hospital. Please no jokes about “Da Swedish Surgeon.” Miracle of miracles I am walking—slowly and briefly— around the ground floor of the house, using only walker or cane. I even ate a breakfast of one half an English muffin, with yoghurt cheese, a glass of grapefruit juice, a small fruit cup, and my first cup of coffee since last...

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Uncategorized

1 Sep, 2020

Burn This Book, Part II

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To produce the tough and resolute men who create, sustain, and defend civilization requires a discipline that more resembles Parris Island than the Fantasy Island schooling in America that leaves no whim unfulfilled, no vicious tendency unstimulated.  Imposing academic rigor and tough discipline may be the most difficult challenge faced by home-schooling parents, even those less indulgent than Michel’s father.  None of us, probably, has had the success we planned for.

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Fleming

28 Aug, 2020

Burn This Book! Part I

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Why do we send our children to school, much less to a college or a university?  I have put this question to any number of parents, teachers, and headmasters and only rarely received a better answer than: “So they can get a good job.”  Never having had what most people call a good job, I take their word for it that taking out tonsils or keeping felons out of jail constitutes a good job, so long as it brings in more than 100k in the second or third year of practice.  

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Feature / Fleming

19 Aug, 2020

Think Twice Before You Bend

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I just accidentally ran across a FB post in which trans-gendering is justified by the claim that the word “man” once referred to humans of either sex and “she” was not invented until the 13th century. These people are wonderfully creative, almost as creative as the average priest or minister who lies his way through the Scriptures and the Creeds.   I don’t suppose I have to point out to any of my readers that different languages express natural distinctions in a variety of ways. That distinctions of tense, for example, are in some Indo-European languages, no more significant than...

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Feature

11 Aug, 2020

“We Can Take Anything We Want!” With a report from Andy Vaught of SNO

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Finally.  No more lies about police brutality and the legacy of slavery.  Black Lives Matter goes on the record with its mission statement.  BLM organizer Ariel Atkins, describing the  looting in Chicago as ‘reparations,’ declared:

 “I don’t care if someone decides to loot a Gucci or a Macy’s or a Nike store, because that makes sure that person eats, that makes sure that person has clothes.”

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Uncategorized

7 Aug, 2020

Good News From Big Belly Q in Chapel Hill

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A hearty welcome back to UNC and our community! On August 12th we’re safely re-opening a whopping 4 days a week (Wednesday-Saturday) including biscuity brunch items on Saturday. We will be accepting online orders as well as walk-ins with limited seating available outside on the patio. Deliver options will be made available in the coming weeks as well. We look forward to welcoming the students and staff back with delicious smoked goodness in a safe and convenient environment. Wood-fired Neopolitan pizzas will begin in September on Friday nights with tons of specials and events leading up to it. First bonus! We’ll be giving away a t-shirt each week. Simply Follow us on IG, tag 2 bbq loving friends along with a comment of a favorite bbq item and location (e.g the dirty bird chicken biscuit @bigbelly_que ). We’ll choose our favor

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Free Content

6 Aug, 2020

No Representation Without Taxation

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Some sensible person on FB suggested that only taxpayers have the right to vote. Some of his “friends” demurred. I gave this answer: Paying taxes is a significant part of citizenship, so is agreeing to do one’s duty, if drafted or receiving a summons to sit on a jury. I avoided but did not evade military service on legal and reasonable grounds, but if taking the franchise away from draft-dodgers meant that I forfeited the right to vote, so be it. But that is only the start. Decades ago, I proposed a general rule that taxpayers, but not tax-consumers should...