Month: July 2021
My Definition of the Right
We talk a lot about the Right and the Left and who is on the Right and who is on the Left. For instance, a large part of the 2016 fireworks was over people who said Donald Trump was not a Republican. And a large contingent of these people were neoconservatives and libertarians. To them Trump was just an opportunist who had seized on nativist talking points to appeal to the worst instincts of the working-class White Americans and would lead the Republicans to disaster in the general election because his policy priorities would be rejected by the wider American electorate. As it turned out they were dead wrong. “Making America Great Again,” and putting America first resonated with the majority of voters.
A lot of water has passed under the bridge since 2016 and the neocons have become the NeverTrumpers and have self-ejected from the Republican party and the Right in general. They are now indistinguishable from Woke Leftists except in their enhanced emphasis on all things anti-Trump.
And this is the crux of the point of this post. The Neocons were never conservatives. And it should have been obvious from the beginning that if you are not socially conservative then you are not of the Right. And that goes for others “on the Right.” Being in favor of market capitalism makes you a capitalist. It doesn’t make you a conservative. You can be an enthusiastic capitalist and compete ferociously in the free market and still be in favor of deconstructing the United States of America, the Family and Western Civilization all at the same time. So, the former dichotomy of Right and Left being capitalists versus communists doesn’t really apply to today. The Woke Left is spearheaded by Silicon Valley billionaires who print money by the metric ton but want to turn America into a digital gulag. So, defining the Right isn’t what we thought it was back in Reagan’s day and never was. Somehow Donald Trump knew that the Right wasn’t the Right and he was able to seize the high ground and overturn the establishment Republican’s narrative. He became the Right. But Donald Trump will not always be around and we need a definition of what the Right is or represents so that we can measure other leaders and other policies to see if they align with our interests.
So, what is the Right, what is conservatism? As far as I can tell, conservatism is the Right and what it means is conserving the things in life that have value, things that give life meaning. And so, it comes down to individual judgement. But I think if the “normal” opinion on what gives life meaning is assumed then what we are talking about are the rock-bottom requirements to making life human. And I don’t think you can get any more fundamental than the preservation of the family. A man and a woman raising kids is just about as basic as it gets. All that needs to be added is the framework for raising them which we call religion. So, God and Family. And because this is America, we add in the Constitution of the United States to allow all the families to interact without having to kill each other. In fact it’s probably one of the finer blueprints for running a country. God, Family and Country. That’s it.
For the most part what we have to do is see where a particular policy or leader aligns with or hampers these things and we’ll know whether it’s of the Right or not. For instance, the Supreme Court has declared gay marriage a Constitutional right. This makes it very difficult for a politician to do anything about eliminating it. But if a politician says he’s a conservative and he also espouses gay marriage or transgender rights then you know that he’s a Leftist.
There, that’s easy. Look at what politicians say they agree with and you’ll know what side they are on. If a politician says he’s anti-communist but his idea of capitalism means sending all the jobs overseas and importing low wage laborers into this country then guess what? He’s a Leftist. He may claim he just believes in free markets and capitalism but what he really believes in is globalism and therefore he doesn’t believe in the United States of America. If a politician says he believes in God but says that you aren’t allowed to object to sexual deviancy being taught to your children then guess what? He’s a Leftist.
Now how easy is that? Try it on any politician who waxes poetic about conservatism but never seems to get any results. Find out what he’s actually said about specific policy points like illegal immigration or bringing jobs back to this country or tariffs or “free trade” or transgender rights or freedom of religion. It should be pretty easy to sort the wolves from the sheep dogs.
I’ll try to put together some further examples to try to refine my thoughts on the definition of the Right and the various groups like libertarians and social conservatives and socialists but I hope this makes clear what I think conservative means. It means pro-family, pro-religion, pro-America. In other words pro-normal.
13JUL2021 – Photo of the Day
13JUL2021 – Quote of the Day
Annie Laurie
Maxwelton’s braes are bonnie,
Where early fa’s the dew,
Twas there that Annie Laurie
Gave me her promise true.
Gave me her promise true –
Which ne’er forgot will be,
And for bonnie Annie Laurie
I’d lay me down and dee.
Her brow is like the snow-drift,
Her throat is like the swan,
Her face it is the fairest,
That ‘er the sun shone on.
That ‘er the sun shone on –
And dark blue is her e’e,
And for bonnie Annie Laurie
I’d lay me down and dee.
Like dew on gowans lying,
Is the fa’ o’ her fairy feet,
And like winds, in summer sighing,
Her voice is low and sweet.
Her voice is low and sweet –
And she’s a’ the world to me;
And for bonnie Annie Laurie
I’d lay me down and dee.
William Douglas (modified by Alicia Ann Scott)
The Four Feathers (1939) – A Classic Movie Review
This 1939 British version of the story stars John Clements as Harry Faversham a young Englishman whose family has a centuries old tradition of military service but who himself fears the reality of war. He is engaged to Ethne Burroughs daughter of retired General Burroughs and sister to Peter Burroughs his best friend and comrade in the Royal North Surrey Regiment of the British Army. Ralph Richardson plays Captain John Durrance, Faversham’s rival for Ethne’s love and the main cast is rounded out by Jack Allen as Lieutenant Willoughby.
As the marriage approaches the British Army is about to send an expedition from Egypt to Sudan to reconquer Khartoum ten years after the Mahdi had captured it from General Gordon. The Royal North Surrey Regiment is called up for service but Faversham resigns his commission to avoid fighting. His three friends send him a package that consists of a box with three white feathers attached to cards with each of their names. When he arrives at Ethne’s home her father will not even speak to him and because of Ethne’s sorrowful reaction to his actions he takes a white feather from her fan and tells her he will add it as her contribution to his collection of white feathers.
Now feeling himself to be the coward that his friends have declared him he visits his father’s old friend Dr Sutton and works through his feelings with this mentor and decides that he must restore his honor by going to Sudan and proving himself. But of course, he’s no longer in the British Army so he goes to Egypt and recruits the help of an Egyptian friend of Dr. Sutton who disguises him as a native. But to hide his lack of knowledge of Arabic he is branded on the forehead to appear as one of the mute Sangali tribe. In this guise he travels to Sudan and joins the work gang that is helping to transport the British Army under Kitchener to Khartoum. And he is just in time to save Captain John Durrance from death when his company is surrounded by the Mahdi’s army during a diversionary action that the British planned to allow the bulk of their army to escape a battle at the enemy’s stronghold.
Durrance has suffered a heat stroke and is now blind. When his position is being overrun Faversham is able to save his life although both of them are wounded and left for dead by the Mahdi’s men. Burroughs and Willoughby are captured and taken back to Khartoum for imprisonment or worse.
Faversham continues the impersonation of a mute while he transports Durrance across the desert back to the British territory and medical help. Before escaping from the British Faversham manages to place the feather that Durrance gave him back in Durrance’s wallet.
Now Faversham travels to Khartoum and manages to give his two friends a file that they can use to saw through their shackles in prison. He ends up being discovered as an Englishman by the Mahdi and tortured for information. He is thrown into the prison with his friends. He reveals himself to his friends and tells them his plan. If the Mahdi is beaten by Kitchener in battle, he is likely to retreat back to Khartoum and kill his prisoners before the British can take the town and free them. So, Faversham’s plan is to use the file to free as many of the prisoners as possible and wait until the Mahdi’s army sets out for battle then overwhelm the few guards and take possession of the arsenal building that will provide them with the weapons and walls they need to survive until the British take the town.
Things work as Faversham expects until the British army follows the Mahdi’s army and begins bombarding the arsenal. To save themselves from being blown to bits they manage to find an old British flag from the former regime and raise it over the arsenal just in time to save their lives.
Returning to England with his comrades Faversham finds himself forgiven his former cowardice and indeed a hero. But most importantly his fiancée revives her plan to marry him.
The movie has several things going for it. It was filmed on location in the places depicted in the story. The cinematography is impressive and the production was able to enlist British soldiers in period costumes to film the battle scenes. Large forces of men on camels and horses also adds drama to these scenes. The story is highly improbable but the action is enjoyable and the characters are interesting. One standout is C. Aubrey Smith’s portrayal of General Burroughs. In several scenes Burrough’s laments the present-day army’s lack of toughness. In each case he uses food found on a banquet table to reenact the Crimean War, Battle of Balaclava. By the end of the movie, to the relief of the audience, Faversham is in a position to finally shut up his prospective father-in-law by correcting his mistaken narrative of how Burroughs’s actually began the famous charge. I like these old tales from the British Empire. They are filled with adventure and the ethos of the time. Highly recommended for fans of high adventure.
12JUL2021 – OCF Update – This ‘N’ That
Another very rainy day! But I decided to make necessity a virtue. Camera Girl has given me a list of chores to get done before the party on Saturday (or else!) and first thing was bring out the trash pails to the road. Apparently, the holiday weekend caused us somehow to miss the pick-up last week and a mistake now would be catastrophic, so out I went. I had rain pants, rain coat and rubber boots. After moving the trash and putting the mail in the box I was free (for the moment) and outside of the reach of the female of the species and took the grand tour. I have never seen the grass and the shrubs so green in the middle of July. I feel like I’m somehow in Brazil along the edge of the Amazon jungle. I half expected a caiman or an anaconda to spring out of the undergrowth and clamp its jaws on my shin. The world smells warm and alive and I expect the rabbits and the deer will take this occasion to eat some more of my daylilies even in the middle of the day, curse them. I went looking for that young mantis I saw near the pool, but he was gone. The rain seems to be keeping the deer fly from attacking me or maybe that’s just the rain gear. Either way it was peaceful and invigorating to be out in the pouring rain. Camera Girl’s vegetable gardens are lush and growing. Some of the plants could probably do with a little more sunshine but so far nothing has drowned.
My attempt to grow elecampane (Inula helenium) from seeds three weeks ago may not have failed after all. I put a packet of seeds in two different gardens and in five or six cardboard flower pots in a raised bed. None of the seeds on the ground did anything and I presume they are dead. But I think two or three of the little pots may be growing something. It’s a big yellow (of course) flower that I’ve wanted to add to the garden for years but could never find for sale. But with the advent of the internet, things like obscure plant seeds are just a mouse click away. It turns out elecampane is a “medicinal herb” that can cure evil humors if applied to the patient by a Gaian shaman or crone. “¡Ay Chihuahua, cuantos Apaches, cuantos Indios sin huaraches!” But anyway, they may be growing after all.
The blueberry bushes are actually weighted down with unripe berries. I fear that the deer are just waiting to swoop down and devour the whole crop just as it ripens. Ah well, as Camera Girl says, “Everybody’s gotta eat.” Whatever.
I was reading the ZMan’s Monday posts at his site and Taki’s. They were depressing takes on bugmen like David French and their pernicious embrace of critical race theory in the schools. It made me think that what will be needed is instruction in the true story of Western Civilization. Parents and grandparents and uncles and aunts who are interested can point children to older books that reflect the actual story of how we got here. The history books from two generations ago are full of the true stories of our ancestors and the adventures and tragedies that make up western history. The Greeks, Romans, Celts, Germans, Angles, Saxons, Vikings and the other peoples who have collided and mixed and fought and produced Michelangelo and Mozart and Newton and Maxwell and Edison and all the things that they have created. Biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, medicine, electricity, engines, nuclear weapons, space travel and computers. Imagine being ashamed of the people who made these things. The absurdity of the midgets who want our children to prefer the cultures of people who lived in mud huts and ate each other for dinner. We should be ashamed of ourselves for even tolerating these people who are ashamed of the civilization that made their lives rich beyond the imaginations of people only a hundred years ago. I’ll have to start identifying old books that can be used as resources for teaching the young.
Anyway, it’s going to be a busy week. As I say I have a list of chores to perform before the party and Camera Girl will brook no nonsense from me. She’s not concerned with my crusade to save America. She wants the porch swept and the chairs cleaned off. My ambition is to clean off the grill. I have some rib-eye steaks to cook on Saturday and I’d like them not to taste like old hamburger grease. But I promise not to neglect the site and I’m sure I’ll have outrages to comment on and sage advice to distribute to the world at large.
Guest Contributor – War Pig – East Berlin and Breaking Bread with Ivan – Part 2
Guest Contributor – War Pig – East Berlin and Breaking Bread with Ivan
(photog) – War Pig, what would an American serviceman have to do to enter East Berlin? Just a frontier checkpoint to inspect identification papers?
(War Pig) – Back then, you had to have a pass, and you had to be in uniform. Military from America, Brits, French, etc. were nothing unusual in visiting East Berlin. They were rather inclined to allow you in as you brought western currency with you. Your papers were inspected at the checkpoint but I don’t remember anyone being denied entry with the paperwork correct. You could even bring in a camera as long as you obeyed the “do not photograph” signs. You were overcharged but even at that it was cheaper than West Berlin prices. As I recall, we had black beer, & roast or corned beef sandwiches on dark bread. Hearty and satisfying. Must have been corned beef as I now remember I mentioned to the Russian that the corning spices in German corned beef were different than the Irish style used in America. That led to a side discussion about our favorite foods. He was surprised that I actually like borscht. I said I liked it some ways as I had had it about a dozen different ways and I only liked two or three.
I wish I could meet him again if he still lives. I’d like to see how he got along. It really would have been a pity if we’d had to fight each other.
12JUL2021 – Photo of the Day
12JUL2021 – Quote of the Day
When God’s hand is bent to strike, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God; but to fall out of the hands of the living God is a horror beyond our expression, beyond our imagination.
John Donne
Praying Mantises, Children’s Books and Pa – Part 3 – Dr. Livingstone I Presume!
So the first survivor has made his appearance in the yard. This one found his way into the stella d’oro daylilies in the swimming pool area. May he be the first of many that show up. My little granddaughter will find out that praying mantises don’t talk like they do in her Eric Carle books but they are very exciting for an insect.
Good hunting little fellow.
Praying Mantises, Children’s Books and Pa – Part 1
Praying Mantises, Children’s Books and Pa – Part 2 – The Arrival