Forgive me, Gentle Reader. It was a strenuous weekend, and my current tail-dragging condition will not support the production of a typical essay. So have a few tidbits from the recent past.
1. How It’s Done Dept.
The true test of a writer’s skill is his ability to unearth a timeless truth in a novel setting. Today’s expositor is Andrew Klavan:
I don't care about super hero movies. They tell me they represent an American mythology, but it's a childish mythology: heroics without tragedy — and there are no heroics without tragedy.
And they’re just the first two sentences of a wholly remarkable piece.
2. Behind The Glib Phrases And Oily Assurances.
Never, ever believe a gun-controller who says that “we don’t intend to take your guns:”
In an appearance on NBC’s Sunday Today early that morning, moderator Chuck Todd lambasted Republicans for being the reason gun control efforts were making no progress since they were in control of the House, Senate, and the Presidency. Todd ratcheted up his anti-gun stance during Meet the Press by promoting radical calls to abolish the right to bears by repealing the Second Amendment. And he did it by highlighting the writings of Bret Stephens, a never-Trumper turned liberal.“Isn’t the difficulty here legislatively, the constitution,” Todd lamented to his largely liberal panel. “Which is Bret Stephens' point in The New York Times, he’s calling for the repeal of the Second Amendment.”
The one and only reason to repeal the Second Amendment is to facilitate federal laws mandating the registration of every firearm owned by any American citizen, other than a designated exception category of “grandfathered” firearms owners. And of course those designated exception categories will all be employed by the State or one of its mandarins.
First registration, with serious penalties for unauthorized acquisitions and transfers. Confiscation would follow shortly thereafter. The ultimate consequence would be a tyranny undreamed of by any living American. Doubt this at your peril.
3. A Test Of The Democrats’ Motives.
Rush Limbaugh remains one of the most incisive commentators and thinkers on the Right. Here’s a recent example of Rush as his best:
Nationally-syndicated radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh was a guest on “Fox News Sunday” with Chris Wallace, who asked him about how he would deal with DACA and illegal immigration.Limbaugh said he would agree to permanent citizenship for illegal immigrants under one very important condition … they would not be eligible to vote for 15 to 25 years.
Never mind that this would require a Constitutional amendment. The Democrats’ caterwaulings against the “unfairness” of it would lay bare their insincerity and faux compassion, making plain their true reason for wanting to keep illegal aliens streaming into the country.
Note also that the Democrats’ opposition to a border wall is currently founded on cost-benefit: i.e., they claim that it would cost a fortune and it wouldn’t stem the tide. This makes two subjects on which the Democrats suddenly become cost-conscious. The other, of course, is the military.
4. The Endless Inventiveness Of The Warmistas.
The invaluable Joanne Nova brings us the latest ignore-the-data self-exculpation from the promoters of man-caused global warming:
… “according to a scientific study published this month, the Southeast’s colder winter weather is part of an isolated trend, linked to a more wavy pattern in the jet stream that crosses North America. That dipping jet stream allows arctic air to plunge into the Southeast. Scientists call this colder weather a “hole” in overall global warming, or a “warming hole.”“What we are looking at is an anomaly,” said Jonathan M. Winter, an assistant professor of geography at Dartmouth College and the principle investigator in the study. “The Southeast is the exception to the rule.”
Joanne provides the required snark:
Coming soon, new discoveries will show that the Little Ice Age was not cold, just part of an isolated trend that happened all over the world.
If neither of us were married and we weren’t half a world apart...!
5. The Past Speaks To Us, Did We But Listen.
Longtime friend and colleague David De Gerolamo provides a historically relevant quotation:
If Professor Reynolds will allow: Heh. Indeed.
6. Hungary’s Viktor Orban Leads The Way.
...and the way forward is Christianity:
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary's prime minister says that "Christianity is Europe's last hope" and that politicians in Brussels, Berlin and Paris favoring migration have "opened the way to the decline of Christian culture and the advance of Islam."Viktor Orban said Sunday during his 20th annual state of the nation speech that his government will oppose efforts by the United Nations or the European Union to make migration acceptable to the world.
He conjured the image of a Western Europe overtaken by Muslims, saying that "born Germans are being forced back from most large German cities, as migrants always occupy big cities first."
Orban claimed that Islam would soon "knock on Central Europe's door" from the west as well as the south.
Leaders of insight and courage are arising just as we need them. May they be enough!
7. I Can’t Not Mention This.
Mike Hendrix has been unbelievably generous in promoting my fiction:
[I]f any of you haven’t already, get on over to Francis’ place and buy his books. I promise you you won’t regret it, and your appetite will be duly whetted for the sequel to Innocents as an added bonus. Having made a go at writing a novel myself a few years back—and failing miserably at it, too—I can only tip my hat in humble admiration to a guy like Francis, who manages to produce such extraordinary work again and again (I was gonna append something like “seemingly effortlessly” at the last there, but I know better than that).Thankfully, the fruits of Poretto’s toil in the gardens of lit’rachure are easily available to us lesser lights in this the Age of the Innarnuts, and at a bargain price. He also has a variety of (mostly) shorter novels available here, along with one on his thoughts about the nuts and bolts of writing, all for the astonishingly low, low price of…FREE. Do yourself a favor and go get yourself some. You’ll be supporting one of the good guys, with the added benefit of helping a worthwhile alternative to a world of creative endeavor dominated by lugubrious dreck salted heavily with liberal proselytizing to flourish.
The man has a talent for making me blush. Thank you, Mike, most sincerely.
That’s all for today, Gentle Reader. I hope to catch a few badly needed Zs between now and tomorrow’s tirade. See you then.
"Limbaugh said he would agree to permanent citizenship for illegal immigrants under one very important condition … they would not be eligible to vote for 15 to 25 years."
ReplyDeleteHas Limbaugh not realized that Undocumented Democrats don't need to actually vote to increase the electoral clout of the Dems; they need merely to be counted in the Census.