Poem: “Advent Calendar” by Archbishop Rowan Williams
He will come like last leaf’s fall.
One night when the November wind
has flayed the trees to the bone, and earth
wakes choking on the mould
The Fleming Foundation Cultural Commentary
Wednesday’s Child: A Victory for Labor
No, it isn’t a mistake, my title. It’s not like I don’t read the papers, you know. But in the stuffy atmosphere of Tory triumphalism, I think, the gentle reader may well be wishing for a window on the world to be opened. So what really happened in Britain last week? Well, basically, the two main political parties have exchanged roles, which is not, moreover, entirely a bad thing. It’s both good news and bad. Let me start with the good news. A number of pollsters analyzing the general election have spoken of a new divide in British society, as...
Little Boxes of the Mind, Conclusion
Change the character and you have changed the nation. A culture based on casual promiscuity, Gaia-worship, and mistranslations of Hindu and Mayan literature will produce an entirely different national character from one based on Homer and Dante.
A December Birthday: Santa Claus
An 18 minute podcast filled with occasionally accurate information on the life of Santa Claus
Humor in the Impeachment follies
Although they’re idiotic, tyrannical and boring, there’s humor in the Impeachment Follies: 1. Why hasn’t Greta Thunberg intervened to remove Trump and replace him with herself? Time magazine, long connected to the CIA, just proclaimed her Queen of the Galaxy. It quotes her marching orders to her subjects, “I want you to panic!” She replaced Queen Lea Organa, who died in the last P.C. Star Wars movie, but might come back in the next one, out December 20, “Star Wars XVIIXMCDMMVIIILMNOPQ: Jar Jar Abrams’ P.C. Guide to the Galaxy and Why Trump Should Be Impeached.” 2. Among the New Republic’s...
Remembering Russia by James Patrick
Text and Talk, 11 May 2019 It is difficult to forget Russia, given the proclivity of the state, real and imagined, to meddle in America elections and to violate egregiously the Monroe Doctrine by sponsoring illiberal client states such as Cuba and Venezuela that are organized on a socialist model. From 1946 to 1991 Russia was an existential threat to Western Europe. Its nuclear arsenal is now larger than that of the United States and it has the only other strategic air force in the world. Its manner in politics is bullying, and its leaders still consider the...
Russia Recycled
People whose memories go back more than a few weeks will remember that when Donald Trump inserted himself into the competition for the Republican nomination in 2015, and began immediately to dominate the debates, there was consternation among all those people who had become accustomed to things never changing. When his supporters began to greet the name Clinton with chants of “Lock her up!” and he began to talk about draining the Washington swamps, consternation turned to panic. As we now know, his political opponents, both Democrats and Republicans, joined forces with rogue elements in the huge spy establishment, hoping...
Poems: Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
A great hymn by Charles Wesley, an Anglican minister who never abandoned the church in which he had been ordained.
Impeachment–the End of American Legitimacy
A 26 minute podcast on the disillusioning of American democracy.
Little Boxes of the Mind, Part One of Two
I do not blame the students. The fault lies almost entirely with their parents and with their teachers. Entire university departments are now populated exclusively by trained monkeys who specialize in critical theory or sociology or marketing and know absolutely nothing worth knowing.
