Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off, Part One
The folly of opinions–and the people who have them. This is a revised version of the original essay that was published in somewhat truncated form in September, 2006.
Category: Feature
Guns ’n’ Grammar
The late Charley Reese got the gun issue right: “Some might say the Second Amendment is obsolete. Our own century shows us that it is not. Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Fidel Castro, Pol Pot and Mao all saw to it that people were disarmed prior to commencing their reigns of terror and tyranny. God forbid, but Americans, too, could find themselves some day having to choose between submission or resistance to a tyrant.”
California Sanctuary Utopia
California remains a land of increasing contradictions. Consider how California’s dominant Democratic politicians are resisting federal immigration laws.
Another Catholic Hymn by a Protestant: Scott’s ‘Ave Maria’
Ave Maria! maiden mild!
Listen to a maiden’s prayer!
Thou canst hear though from the wild,
Thou canst save amid despair.
“A Catholic Hymn” by a Protestant Poet
At morn — at noon — at twilight dim —
Maria! thou hast heard my hymn!
In joy and woe — in good and ill —
Mother of God, be with me still!
Χρίστος Ανέστη
This great Easter hymn was composed by Venantius Fortunatus, an Italian who lived roughly from 530 to 600 or some time thereafter. Born in Venezia, near Treviso, he was educated in the then still-civilized Ravenna some time after Justinian’s reconquest of Italy. He made his way to the Frankish court in Metz, where he established himself as court poet.
Johnny Rocco’s World, Part II, Conclusion: To Hell With Conservatism
Conservatives always end up selling out what they claim are their principles. Why? Because their only principle is cupiditas, the root of all evil.
The Inconvenience of Truth
In its original Latin use, inconvenient, meaning not accordant or unsuitable, was—as far as I know—innocent of sinister implication; but in the six hundred years since its importation into English via French, it has tended to take on the coloring of a euphemism. Although the Oxford Dictionary shows no awareness of the fact, in the days of Elizabeth I, if her Lord Treasurer William Cecil began to think that someone’s presence or behavior was inconvenient, then it was probably time for that person to start thinking seriously about putting his property in trust, and planning a trip overseas. In contemporary...
Jeremiah’s Job
What should be the posture of a solitary reactionary, who disagrees with every progressive policy promoted by both parties—or at least promoted by the one and resisted feebly by the other? I shall not presume to give advice, but I would invite our attention to an ancient parallel case: The people of Judah in the time of Jeremiah
