Month: January 2020

30JAN2020 – Quote of the Day

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Let us not forget that violence does not live alone and is not capable of living alone: it is necessarily interwoven with falsehood. Between them lies the most intimate, the deepest of natural bonds. Violence finds its only refuge in falsehood, falsehood its only support in violence. Any man who has once acclaimed violence as his method must inexorably choose falsehood as his principle.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

ZMan Reacts to Christopher Caldwell’s “The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties”

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Caldwell rights about the deleterious effects caused by the affirmative action legislation in the 1960’s.

Surprisingly, the ZMan seems to think some of the views of the Dissident Right are leaking through to mainstream society.   I’ll have to read Caldwell’s book to see what I think.

 

The New Hope

 

 

O Brother, Where Art Thou? – A Country Music Review

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Back in 2000 I went to see the Coen Brothers movie of the same name and even though George Clooney was just as much of a progressive jerk back then as now I enjoyed the movie immensely.  So, I bought the movie soundtrack sometime in early 2001 and listened to it from time to time.  Then 9/11 happened and I found myself listening to that album over and over.  One song especially, “Angel Band,” seemed soothing and fit my mood.  About the same time, I was driving home from work, listening to the local classic rock station and it struck me that I had heard the same six songs on the way home for the last six months and just couldn’t stand to hear them again.  So, I tried a few of the other rock stations and realized they were playing exactly the same songs.  In desperation I clicked around to see what else was playing.  Eventually I stumbled on a country music station and by some weird coincidence they were playing Angel Band!  I took it as a divine intervention and from then on, I switched to country music.

So that may explain why I have an exaggerated regard for “O Brother Where Art Though.”  But undoubtedly it is a very good album.  Even the songs that are not strictly country fit the mood of the collection.  My favorite songs in the collection are:

  • Down to the River to Pray (Alison Krauss)
  • I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow (Dick Burnett)
  • Didn’t Leave Nobody but the Baby (Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch)
  • Indian War Whoop (John Hartford)
  • Angel Band (The Stanley Brothers)

I’ll review the movie separately but I don’t think it’s necessary to watch the movie to enjoy the music but it does add an extra dimension to the experience which I recommend.

Traveller by Chris Stapleton – A Country Music Review

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Chris Stapleton is a big country music star.  His 2015 debut solo album Traveller was double platinum and went to number 1 on Billboard.  But I only heard of him when I looked up a song that was on the soundtrack of the movie Hell or High Water that I watched last year.  That was the song “Outlaw State of Mind.”  So, I figured I’d buy the album it was released on and that was “Traveller.”  Chris Stapleton is a very successful songwriter with his songs being sung by country artists such as Luke Bryan, Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley and Dierks Bentley.  And when you listen to this album you realize he is a fantastic lyricist.  It is filled with great music.  There are all kinds of different songs, songs about love, heartache, addiction, music, God and working-class alienation.  There’s plenty of good stuff on it but being the romantic that I am my favorite song on the album is a love song called “More of You.”  It’ a mandolin accompaniment to a husband describing his undying love for his wife.  As a man married for almost a lifetime to a woman as stubborn and aggravating as Camera Girl no one is more aware of the homicidal impulses that can awaken in a husband’s tortured mind when such a woman really tries to twist the knife.  But I also know the flipside, which is that a good marriage is the best thing that can happen to a man.  This song captures that good side.  It is simple, tender and beautiful.

Traveller is a good country album.  Give it a try.

Another Supreme Court Ruling Against Unlimited Immigration

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This ruling confirms that the United States can deport aliens who have ended up on the public dole.  https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/27/politics/supreme-court-immigration-public-charge/index.html .  This law has been in effect since 1882 and in my opinion makes perfect sense.  If someone can’t make a living in this country and instead wants to live on our dime isn’t it necessary to send him home?  In my mind it means we can sweep the welfare roles and not only find the legal aliens but look for anyone who is not a citizen, in other words, illegal aliens.  This was a 5-4 ruling so John Roberts is at least on our side on immigration.