Category Archives: Blogosphere

That Royal baby

Posted on July 24, 2013 | 2 comments

Fox News, which I check at least once every day as the most reliable and objective of the traditional news gatherers, lured me in the other day to paying attention to Prince William and Princess Kate and their baby boy.

I already admired dad for being a helicopter pilot in the Royal Navy. The late Princess Diana’s eldest certainly didn’t have to venture into that particular danger. Nor did his younger brother, Harry, have to fight in Afghanistan. I also liked Bill’s self-deprecating remark that his new son (bald as babies usually are) has more hair than he does.

Katie seems nice enough. Although a commoner (like the rest of us) whose ancestors actually include coal miners and laborers, her beauty, ever-present smile and flamboyant hats help her fit right in with the other swells.

Why do we (and me) care about these folks? I’m not sure. America wouldn’t exist if our predecessors had not been anti-monarchists who kicked out the old royal’s troops, including their German mercenaries.

Nevertheless, says Spengler: “…the [endurance of the British monarchs reflects] a longing for something more permanent, more reverential in the character of the state.” Lord knows I’d rather look at William and Catherine than our ever-mendacious president and his sour-faced wife. But Bill’s father, Charlie, is a bit of a dork.

Spengler says it all goes back to ancient Israel, the combination of monarchy and religion, that is. The Brit monarchy, you see, upholds the Church of England even as its parishioners dwindle in an increasingly secular country.

But Bill and Katie are just plain refreshing. They seem more wholesome than some of the usual dweebs who clamor for attention. Even if their royalty is dated (going on a thousand years) and, just like our latest occupants of the White House, they get their goods by sponging off the taxpayers.

They probably don’t smile near as much in private. I expect Katie does not cook and I’m sure she doesn’t clean. But Bill, who is after all a military pilot currently stationed in Wales, might use the refrigerator now and then without waiting for a servant to misunderstand and bring him something he doesn’t want.

2 Comments

Posted in Blogosphere, Israel, Obamalot, Obsessions, Troops

Tagged , ,

Our thug culture

Posted on July 23, 2013 | 5 comments

Making a rock star out of the Islamic Boston bomber on the cover of Rolling Stone is the latest example of our thug culture. Hip hop “music” with its lyrics about whores and killing niggas is another example. White teenage boys like Mr. B. soak up the cynical lyrics alongside their favorite headbanger noise.

Look how the alphabet stations and the big newspapers knowingly stuck with a photo of a baby-faced Trayvon at 8 12 years old, instead of the sullen, gold-grill 17-year-old who sold and smoked marijuana and stole jewelry.

Then they ignored Zimmerman’s mixed-race heritage and by uniquely dubbing him a “white-Hispanic” turned him into “an honorary white male steeped in white privilege.” All to elevate a young black thug into a pitable victim of pretend racism and give the Revs. Al and Jesse a new lease on “leadership.”

And you could go back even farther. How about the musical Guys & Dolls, with its catchy, hummable songs (Luck Be A Lady) celebrating the blood-soaked gangsters of the New York underworld and their hooking-up floozies? It almost won a Pulitzer for drama.

And don’t forget Bonnie & Clyde. They got a hit movie thirty years after their deaths for their small store (not banks, as their publicists claimed) robberies and killing at least nine cops.

It all may seem more vulgar and dishonest today than ever before, and maybe it is, but the squalid nonsense is old, very old in a culture that has always been much less than it pretended to be.

Via Phase Line Birnam Wood and Instapundit.

5 Comments

Posted in Blogosphere, Mr. Boy, Music, Scribbles, The Drug War

Tagged , , , , ,

The Tail of the Dragon

Posted on July 22, 2013 | 2 comments

Many years ago, grasshopper, I drove winding U.S. Route 129, near Deals Gap, North Carolina, entirely by chance. I just happened to have included it on my route for visiting a cousin I hadn’t seen in a decade or so.

Fortunately I didn’t have an accident in the rental car, which I recall was a “floaty” land-yacht of a Buick sedan. I didn’t know I was in for 318 blind curves in 11 miles. I’d driven a series of hairpin turns on mountain roads before, in West Virginia, for instance, but this was really excessive.

Maybe motorcyclers didn’t ride it then, because I don’t recall meeting any.

But they do it now, in droves, and some of them wind up on the Tree of Shame.

Via Instapundit.

2 Comments

Posted in Blogosphere, Genealogy, Science/Engineering

Tagged , ,

Free Boroujerdi!

Posted on July 21, 2013 | 4 comments

It’s good to know there’s at least one Muslim cleric who advocates tolerance of non-Muslims. Unfortunately Ayatollah Hossein Kazemeini  Boroujerdi has been imprisoned in Tehran since 2009, tortured and denied medical care, and now he is dying, presumably of heart disease.

“Ayatollah Boroujerdi threatens the regime for two reasons:  he advocates toleration of all religious (and non-religious) beliefs, and, in keeping with Shi’ite tradition, opposes the involvement of religious leaders in politics.  Years ago, he said ‘the regime is adamant that either people adhere to political Islam or be jailed, exiled or killed.

“In 2010 he sent Hanukkah greetings to the Jews of the world, saying “any religious belief that brings us closer to the Source (God) is the truth. This force will lead humanity towards enlightenment. On this great day, we celebrate the unity among the believers of God’s light.”

A White House plea for Boroujerdi’s freedom, so he can at least die at home among family and friends, might work, as might a similar call by our U.N. rep Samantha Powers. It’s hard to imagine either happening, unfortunately, but it would be wonderful if they did.

Via Faster Please.

4 Comments

Posted in Blogosphere, Israel, Obamalot, The War

Tagged , , ,

The snooze media cautiously opens an eye

Posted on July 21, 2013 | 4 comments

The IRS breadcrumbs are leading ever closer to the White House, pausing for now at the office of the tax agency’s chief counsel, a Wormtongue appointee in 2009.

Like we couldn’t figure out that the IRS’s screwing of the Tea Party was ordered from the top. But it’s nice to almost have proof. And while the Associated Press tried to cover it up the other day, some of their junior subscribers, at least, are finally starting to pay attention: i.e. the Dallas Morning News and Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Who knows? Maybe even the daily, which also relies on AP, will get around to noticing there’s some real news out there, besides the continuing blather about St. Trayvon the Thug and the latest from the White House fog machine.

Via Instapundit.

UPDATE:  Delaware will sift through your federal tax records whenever they like. Especially if you run for political office as a Republican.

MORE:  The plot thickens: IRS chief counsel visited Wormtongue two days before the screws were applied to the Tea Party. Shocker!

4 Comments

Posted in Blogosphere, Obamalot, Scribbles, Texana

Tagged

Rule 5: Miniskirts

Posted on July 20, 2013 | 4 comments

This was NYC in the summer of 1969 while I was, uh, regrettably preoccupied in Viet Nam. Now I see what I was missing. Very daring, this one.

Via Instapundit.

4 Comments

Posted in Blogosphere, Obsessions, Rule 5, Viet Nam

Tagged ,

Our phony justice system

Posted on July 19, 2013 | 5 comments

Not because George Zimmerman was acquitted, which he certainly deserved to be, but because of the way the state of Florida tried, desperately, to convict him of something, anything, to keep the racists happy.

“…if Floridians are of a mind to let off a little steam, they might usefully burn down the Sanford courthouse and salt the earth. The justice system revealed by this squalid trial is worth rioting over.”

An all-woman jury for a male defendant? What was that about? Six jurors instead of twelve? What am I missing here?

Possibly that Florida was merely following the trend at the federal level, which wins more than 90 percent of its cases, principally because they hit the defendant with so many charges that the jury feels like it’s being reasonable to only convict on one or two of them.

It’s a record which, as Mark Steyn notes, certainly would impress the House of Saud. Only Kim Jon Un is likely to close in on 100 percent.

Our in-house editor, Mrs Charm, frequently reminds us that criminal justice these days is about plea bargaining and and not much else. Even Jimmy Carter knows our democracy is dying.

UPDATE:  Florida law says the acquitted Zimmerman gets his gun back. The feds, however, tell Florida not to obey its own law. Justice denied again.

MORE:  Meanwhile, our narcissist president (everything is about him) weighs in once more:  “If Trayvon was a white teen, he said, ‘both the outcome and the aftermath might have been different.’” The “show” must go on until the polls close in 2014.

5 Comments

Posted in Blogosphere, Mrs. Charm, Obamalot

Tagged , , , ,