Jesse Reminds Us Of Kenneth Clark's 'Civilization'

This must be read and viewed.

What Have We Here? Obama And The Judge, One Day Before The Judge Enjoins The Second Travel Restriction Executive Order

OS does not generally pay attention to conspiracy theories...they tend to not hold water. Conspiracies require the cooperation of a number of parties, and in any group of evil-doers, someone will spill the beans, even if over beers at the local tavern.

So, when the chatter about Mr. Obama's visit to Hawaii and subsequent injunction against the second travel ban issued by a federal judge (appointed by Obama) began to rumble, OS ignored it. He does not look good in any sort of tin-foil hat.

But this time, OS has been proven wrong.

What have we here?

Indeed that is The Wan, with The Judge, enjoying dinner the day before the ruling.

And, ZeroHedge shares this tidbit with us:

The day after Obama's Tuesday dinner in Honolulu, Derrick Watson issued a ruling which effectively stopped President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration from taking effect hours later. Observers immediately protested the ruling, noting that not only was Watson appointed to his position by Obama in 2014, they had both graduated from Harvard Law School in 1991.

Judge Watson's 43-page ruling was issued a mere two hours after hearing arguments on whether or not the immigration ban should be blocked. This would have required Watson to write a page roughly every three minutes, raising questions about whether or not the judge had already made a decision before even hearing arguments from attorneys and had already drafted a ruling. The proximity of the judge to Obama on his vacation just days before the consequential hearing, their lengthy history together and facts indicating that the judge had prepared a ruling before the case even began raise questions about whether or not the former President exercised improper influence in the judge's decision. Barack Obama's representatives have yet to issue any comment on the matter.

Read the bits in red again... Forty-three pages of legal ruling written, edited and printed within two hours? Holy Workaholic, Batman!! That's just plain miraculous, an historic moment in the history of jurispudence!

OS asks his legion of followers--Had that been either of the Bushes in their post-White House years, appearing to influence a matter before a federal court, what would the reaction in the press have been?

Hmmmm?

And, while Facebook Snowflakes are whining endlessly about the costs of securing Mrs. Trump and little son Trump vis-a-vis spending on National Endowment for the Arts: How much in travel and security costs did that shrimp pad-thai set the taxpayer back?

Hmmmm?

Time for some brave soul in the House of Representatives to drop a Bill of Impeachment of Judge Watson into the hopper, perhaps?

Peronistas and Trump's Brigades in Nashville 15 March 2017

David Warren is a quiet, thoughtful, devastatingly good Canadian essayist, and OS enjoys his Essays in Idleness.

This week's post, 'Justicialismo', is especially on-point.

Warren notes that Peronism, which destroyed Argentina, is not simply an Argentine phenomenon. It is a perverse approach to existence that has taken hold in many lands (including ours). It's difficult to disagree with his reasoning.

Moral, intellectual, and material squalour is their chief legacy to a country which was once among the world’s most prosperous and most free. The spiritual equivalent has now migrated to Rome.
This, at least, is the impression I have formed from afar. “Justicialism,” so far as one can read, embodies every sort of rhetorical populism, across the political spectrum, but with a heavy and perfectly consistent bias towards centralized power. It stands for “social justice” — an absolutely imaginary and therefore unattainable ideal. It is on the side of labour and of management, it is Catholic and anti-Catholic, racist and anti-racist, isolationist and aggressive, leftist and rightist and dogmatically nationalist with all the contradictions nationalism entails. Yet it is not unique.
Socialism is leftwing Fascism; Fascism is rightwing Socialism. Other than that, they are the same. They vie for the same voters, and politicians may move comfortably back and forth between their symmetrical (i.e. identical) extremes. The principle underlying both is that the government should control everything, for the government’s idea of the common good. Whether the government technically owns everything is neither here nor there. Indeed, Socialism/Fascism works better, for the government, if private actors can be made to take the blame and the losses for all of the government’s goon-show mistakes. Any “excess” income on which they fall in their government-assigned monopolist stations can then be impounded.

Warren does not counsel despair, rather a creative approach to battling the disease--live like Christians.

How to resist? Not by “proposing alternatives,” which can only be implemented from the top down, through participation in the established political order. That has been tried, repeatedly, and has anyone noticed it has repeatedly failed?
Rather, I think, one resists by creative personal non-cooperation: rendering justice not “socially” to the abstract mass, but individually to your neighbours. With love.

That was from the beginning the “political” genius of Christianity, which undermined dirigiste authority simply by ducking under its radar sweeps; emerging when, under its manifest contradictions, it finally and totally collapsed. Casualties — martyrdoms — must sometimes be taken, but to the ends of Heaven they are all good. Live a free Christian life, in defiance of the modernists, but without telling them.

Spread it by example.

So, OS's legions of readers ask--what does this have to do with The Donald in Nashville?

A lot, actually.

OS reserved tickets for the rally, but life intervened, and he had to offer his spots to others. It was for the best, as the lines for the 6:30 pm rally began to form before dawn outside Nashville's Municipal Auditorium. Thousands stood in blustery winds in 35 degree temps all day for the opportunity to enter for the rally, and cheer for Their President. 

 OS is not in good enough shape for that--getting there, but not yet--and Mrs. OS does not deserve a sick husband. But he watched the RSBN feed of the cheerful crowds, and then the breathless coverage by local CBS affiliate WTVF of the group of a hundred or so angry protestors, manipulated to appear much larger than reality. The constant attempt to paint Trump's Deplorables as an angry rabble just do not pass the laugh test. These folks are, in their own quiet cheerful way, following Warren's advice--living their lives caring for one another, staying as far below the radar as possible, and when given the opportunity, cheering their lungs out for a President who declares he has their back.
 
The Donald's visit to Andrew Jackson's grave was a Big Deal, as Jackson has become the target of much vitriol from Duh' Left. By publicly embracing Jackson, while acknowledging he had some genuine shortcomings (which are undeniable), he signaled that he does not believe that we must be perfect in order to be effective and good; that Jackson did much that makes our life possible today, and he was willing to be wrong at times to make this happen. Just like The Donald. He endorsed Jackson (aka Old Hickory) as a model to emulate, in the good ways, and also an example to avoid in the bad. Of course, the local leftist press was Not Happy, attempting to blunt the effect of the event before it occurred. The thousands waiting in the cold were the best response, as always, to the warm/insured/comfortable/arrogant Great and Good Who Know Better Than All Those Little People.

A final anecdote: Nashville/Davidson county is ringed by a road known as Old Hickory Boulevard--which creates no end of confusion for newcomers, but that's another tale. OS treated Mrs. OS to Thai food at one of their favorite haunts on the western leg of OHB. OS noticed another couple at a nearby table--assumption of husband and wife here--and the lovely lady was dressed in layers with a Trump-Pence shirt visible. OS asked--did you attend the rally? Both answered 'Yes! Why didn't you go? We had such fun!' Chattered on a bit, and then OS posed the question, as the wife was a beautiful black lady, and the adoring husband a white guy, both in their early 30's: It's obvious that it may be a bit of a surprise to see a black lady dressed up like you are. She laughed, and husband chimed in--'It gets better'! Lady beams--'I am an immigrant from Kenya on the path toward citizenship, and I love Donald Trump!' OS sez--you are a legal immigrant, then? 'Yes!' she replies, and beams again. OS recounts that his family and circle of friends are replete with legal immigrants, shakes her hand, and blurts out: 'Welcome to America, ma'am!'

The Peronistas of America simply are wrong, dead wrong, about the culture and nation they attempt to manage, by hook or crook. There is great hope out there, embodied in those folks waiting on the sidewalk, in that couple at the table.

Andy Jackson, Old Hickory, warts and all, would be happy to see this day.

Mr. Ochoa-Puentes, of Honduras, Deported in 2010, Convicted Of Attempted 2nd-Degree Murder in Tennessee in 2016

Mr. Ochoa-Puentes, one of Mr. Obama's 'huddled masses yearning to breathe free', did this.

In August of 2015, Cheatham County Sheriff's Office Deputy William Zimmerlee attempted to pull over Nelson Ochoa-Puentes, 33, for a traffic-related stop near Highway 49 in Cheatham County, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

The TBI said Ochoa-Puentes failed to stop and led Zimmerlee on a car chase into Dickson County where he eventually stopped the vehicle on Bloom Landing Road. Ochoa-Puentes, according to the TBI, reportedly got out of the car and pulled out a gun and pointed it at Zimmerlee. The deputy fired at least one shot at Ochoa-Puentes, striking him in the hand.

The original charge was attempted first degree murder. However, Public Defender Jake Lockert made a successful motion to amend the charge to attempted second-degree murder. The Jury came back Monday night with a guilty verdict for the lesser charge.

He was deported in 2010, ya'll. Nearly murdered a police officer in Tennessee in 2015.

Welcome back to a civilized nation, where he will be sentenced, serve time, and then...

be deported!!

Not pardoned or handed a commutation.

It is worth noting that The Tennessean is now reporting the immigration status of illegal alien felons.
Timez iz changed, ya'll. Amazing what happens when the voters of Tennessee voter overwhelmingly for the GOP...even these libs finally have to take notice.

The Ladies Let It Allllll Hang Out For January 21 March

The Atlantic carries a nice gallery of photos from the day, complete with breathless captions.

Social media is flooded with millions of selfies of smug self-satisfied faces of smiling ladies in little pink hats. It was such a feel-good moment. Never waste an opportunity for a selfie!!

It was the opening stump speech for Elizabeth Warren, catching up with Michelle--who has been crafting hers for some years now. It was Madonna at her potty-mouth lowest, it was the literati and the famous and those who seek to be famous and those looking to climb back into the public eye. It was quite an event, it was....

The Atlantic did share an impressive array of photos--including the images of Muslim women in headscarves marching for their own 'human rights'. A number of questions come to mind, some too indelicate to state in public.

However, one obvious question comes to mind as OS scans the gallery:

Where are the pictures of brave women in pink hats, wearing crosses and carrying Bibles, or wearing the Star of David, in the huge women's rights march in Riyadh?

What would happen to a group of women who would undertake to do this in a place like that?

Would it occur to all those comfortable middle-class-with-liberal-arts-degrees-from-good-schools ladies in pink hats to brave the journey to Medinah or Cairo to stand with their Christian and Jewish sisters? Or does Sisterhood only extend so far?

Does it extend to the daughters of those women marching with them who are trapped in arranged marriages, or who were or will be mutilated? Or are those things merely 'cultural differences', ergo off limits? Nothing to see here, move along.

Did one of those ladies display a poster with the sexual battery victims of Bill Clinton who were further victimized by Hillary? Or does Sisterhood not extend to them? Don't the Sisterhood demand that victims be believed, unless of course, the victims are Clinton victims?

What of the women who didn't vote their way? What Sisterhood for them?

What of the women who work and work and work, and haven't seen incomes rise in almost twenty years? Those ladies were working today, no time for pink hats and selfies for them.

The questions just keep on coming.

And finally--is it just OS who sees a disconnect between The Donald's inaugural address and the hysteria of the marchers? Does anyone see a disconnect between the dignity of 20 January and the shrill tone of 21 January? Does anyone see a disconnect between the laconic treatment of 20 January and the breathless coverage of 21 January?

Tomorrow is 22 January, Monday is 23 January, etc.

And Donald Trump, thank Heaven, is President.

Trump's Presser, and QOTD from HL Mencken

It was damned refreshing to see The Trumpster in his press conference this morning. It was an antidote to the smarmy, treacly, self-serving and utterly dishonest 'farewell' speech Duh Prez last night. (Is this the final one, or must we endure yet more?)

Trump just would not take the usual stuff from the press corps. He called them out for their basic dishonesty, and let that one clown twist in the wind. It was bracing, refreshing.

He displayed a table stacked with signed documents documenting his work in eliminating conflicts of interest. His tax lawyer explained that The Donald is actually exceeding the requirements of the law. Never enough, of course, for the baying mutts who would demand he take a vow of poverty, just to keep them happy.This from the mob that never considered that Hilary's pay-for-play might have been an ethical nightmare.

He even announced that profits from any foreign governments making use of his properties, like renting rooms at his hotels, would be turned over the the Treasury--so that the taxpayer would profit if the Sultan of Wherever decided to camp out in Trump's DC hotel.

Since it was assumed he would not win the election, his business kept plugging along. In the wake of victory, he cancelled millions of dollars worth of deals, just to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest. He and his kids took a huge financial hit.

Not enough for the baying mutts. Never enough for them. Screw' em, and the pigs they rode in on.

So, the quote of the day is--from Mencken--

“The average newspaper, especially of the better sort, has the intelligence of a hillbilly evangelist, the courage of a rat, the fairness of a prohibitionist boob-jumper, the information of a high school janitor, the taste of a designer of celluloid valentines, and the honor of a police-station lawyer.”

One By One, The Hound Of Heaven Hunts Us Down: 'My Fellow Liberals, I Am Tired Of You'

A pithy letter from a courageous soul in California has surfaced, just before Christmas.

It merits quoting, in full.

I’m a secular/agnostic Californian and longtime reader of your blog. I’ve enjoyed your books beginning with Crunchy Cons, and have valued your insights over the years.
Though you don’t know me, I feel like I know you and your family. And I want to share with you, from the liberal bastion of Northern California, that I am officially tired of the type of people who have surrounded me my entire life. In the wake of Trump’s election, I am experiencing “tribe fatigue.” I’m not tired of The Other, Detestable Tribe. I’m tired of my own.

A bit about me: I am a [deleted] with two young children. My parents were non-religious Democrats, and my ex-Catholic mom loathes organized religion to this day.
So I was raised a secular liberal. My college professors were secular liberals. During my journalism phase, my newspaper colleagues were secular liberals. My law school professors and peers were – in the vast majority – secular liberals. Almost everyone at my corporate law firm was a secular liberal. My California neighbors and friends are secular liberals, as are my colleagues. My mother, siblings, and their spouses are all secular liberals.

By all rights, I should be a member in good standing of their tribe, “liking” their Facebook posts and joining their candlelight vigils against the evil Trump Administration. But November 8 and its aftermath revealed to me that I am just so tired of these people. I can’t be like them, and I don’t want my kids turning into them.
I am tired of their undisguised contempt for tens of millions of Americans, with no effort to temper their response to the election with humility or empathy.
I am tired of their unexamined snobbery and condescension.
I am tired of their name-calling and virtue-signaling as signs of supposedly high intelligence.

And this, dear reader, is where the truly pithy parts begin....

I am tired of their trendiness, jumping on every left-liberal bandwagon that comes along (transgender activism, anyone?) and then acting like anyone not on board is an idiot/hater.

I am tired of their shallowness. It’s hard to have a deep conversation with people who are obsessed with moving their kids’ pawns across the board (grades, sports, college, grad school, career) and, in their spare time, entertaining themselves and taking great vacations.

I am tired of their acceptance of vulgarity and sarcastic irreverence as the cultural ocean in which their kids swim. I like pop culture as much as the next person, but people who would never raise their kids on junk food seem to think nothing of letting then wallow in cultural junk, exposed to nothing ennobling, aspirational, or even earnest.
I am tired of watching them raise clueless kids (see above) who go off to college and within months are convinced they live in a rapey, racist patriarchy; “Make America Great Again” is hate speech; and Black Lives Matter agitators are their brothers-in-arms against White Privilege. If my kids are like that at nineteen, I’ll feel I’ve seriously failed them as a parent. Yet the general sentiment seems to be these are good, liberal kids who may have gotten a bit carried away.

I am tired of their lack of interest in any form of serious morality or self-betterment. These are decent, responsible people, many compassionate by temperament. Yet they seem two-dimensional, as if they believe that being a nice, well-socialized person who holds the correct political views is all there is, and there is nothing else to talk about. Isn’t there, though?

I am tired of being bored and exasperated by everybody. I feel like I have read this book a thousand times, and there are no surprises in it. Down with Trump! Trans Lives Matter! Climate deniers are destroying the planet! No cake, we’re gluten-free!
These are good people in a lot of ways. But there has got to be a better tribe.

That leads me to . . . drum roll . . . the Christian Right. It is no small feat, switching tribes. It feels stressful and weird to abandon your tribe for the Detested Other Side.
Since November 8, my husband and I have been taking the kids to church. (He is politically conservative with a religious bent, so no argument there.) I have come this close to buying a giant poster of the American flag for the living room. I may do it still.
Right now, I am struggling to accept the basic Christian doctrines (virgin birth, resurrection, second coming) because I feel the Christian tribe may be the right tribe for my family. We just finished watching a BBC miniseries about the birth of Jesus, which was so beautiful and moving compared to secular TV. My nine-year-old really enjoyed it. I want to prepare my kids to live according to some unchanging truth, not subject to every passing trend, and this felt like a start. But I worry that an inability to believe in the supernatural aspects of the faith will limit my ability to be a “real” Christian.

Last Sunday’s sermon mentioned 1 Peter:18-19, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors.” This may be obvious to you, but secular liberalism does seem empty in some way, despite all the things my educated, middle-class tribe has to be grateful for. If that’s what’s been handed down to me, I want more, especially for my precious kids. I’m trying.

The famous, now-neglected poem by Francis Thompson, here read by Richard Burton, comes to mind.  The opening lines ring loud and true in so many lives:

I FLED Him, down the nights and down the days ; 
I fled Him, down the arches of the years; 
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways 

Of my own mind ; and in the mist of tears 
I hid from Him, and under running laughter. 
Up vistaed hopes, I sped; 
And shot, precipitated, 
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears. 

From those strong Feet that followed, followed after. 
But with unhurrying chase. 
And unperturbed pace, 
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy, 

They beat — and a Voice beat 
More instant than the Feet — 
''All 'things betray thee, who betrayest Me." 

Somewhere along the way, at sometime, she heard some other voice, a phrase of music, a turn of phrase--something, somehow, somewhere. And this year, the Year of Our Lord 2016 (not C.E. 2016!)
the bell rung for her that could not be un-rung.

For her, the adventure now begins, and it will not be an easy trip. One such 'traitor to tribe' is Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, who left a most cozy life inside the academic-left 'bubble' to follow the call of conscience and Christ. Her book The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert found here on Amazon, is not an easy read, because hers has not been an easy journey. OS knows people who are members of the local branch of the tribe she left behind, and he has not yet summoned the courage to bring up her name to them.

So, OS sends greetings to the dear lady in California, who will undoubtedly experience some real losses as she embraces her new 'tribe', and will be horrified to find how many members of that 'new tribe' are just as awful as the people she left behind. Christ himself, however is calling, who never fails.

As one old preacher once put it to his congregation: I've only got three things to share with you.

God's in charge.
He always finishes what he begins.
He never leaves Himself without a witness.

Merry Christmas, dear lady. Keep writing, and sending news of the journey.

In Memoriam Karel Husa, Composer of 'Music for Prague 1968'

Sometimes, words won't do. Sometimes events demand a composer to memorialize events, to set down an eternal marker that says--'This thing happened, and this music will always remember it for us'.

Beethoven did that in the Third Symphony, originally dedicated to Napoleon Bonaparte, the dedication withdrawn as the man's true colors emerged.

Britten did it again in War Requiem--devastatingly so.

Karel Husa, the Czech composer, memorialized the Soviet suppression of the 1968 Prague Spring with 'Music For Prague'. Words won't do, only music will. It is hard listening, because it is a depiction of an incredibly ugly episode. It ends in inspiration, quoting the Hussite hymn 'Ye Who Are God's Warriors'--translation below.

Twenty-one years later, the Soviet goons departed with their tails between their legs. The Czechs and Slovaks sorted themselves out peacefully. One major factor in both event was the Christian faith that held the society together.

And, they had artists like Husa.

May he rest in peace and rise in glory.


Ye who are God's warriors and of his law,
Pray to God for help and have faith in Him;
That always with Him you will be victorious.

Christ is worth all your sacrifices, He will pay you back an hundredfold.
If you give up your life for Him you will receive eternal life.
Happy is he who dies fighting for the truth.

The Lord commandeth you not to fear those who harm the body,
And commandeth you to even put your life down for the love of your brothers.

Therefore, archers, crossbowmen, halberdiers of knightly rank,
Scythemen and macebearers from all walks of life,
Remember always the Lord benevolent.

Do not fear your enemies, nor gaze upon their number,
Keep the Lord in your hearts; for Him fight on,
And before enemies you need not flee.

Since ages past Czechs have said and had proverbs which state,
That if the leader is good, so too is the journey.[a]

Remember all of you the password which was given out.
Obey your captains and guard one another.
Stay sharp and everyone keep formation.

You beggars and wrongdoers, remember your soul!
For greed and theft don't lose your life.
And pay no heed to the spoils of war.

And with this happily cry out – saying, "At thee! Have at thee!"
Grasp the weapon in your hands and shout, "God is our Lord!"

Children, Go Where I Send Thee--And Yes, Virginia, That Is Kenny Rogers

OS usually does not share this sort of item--but this deserves attention.

The singing and arranging are simply exceptional--a joy to the ear from beginning to end.

The old spiritual 'Go Where I Send Thee' has fallen into disuse. In these times, it needs to be revived. The lyrics are actually in the tradition of other 'catechism' carols and spirituals--teaching Bible stories and theology couched in poetry, and employing repetition to ensure memorization, all set to attractive music.

It is a message of hope in dark times,and if we are honest with ourselves, there have been many many dark times, not just this one. The spirituals and carols survive them all, humble and indestructible witnesses to truth and light.

Stockman's Chart Of The Day--The Bottom 90% vs The Top .01%

The Donald has some big challenges ahead.

This is one of the biggest--the top .01% control as much wealth as the bottom 90%.


Little wonder that for most people daily life feels like swimming upstream in a river of glue.

To quote Dave Ramsey: 'Folk's this ain't capitalism! It's the law of the jungle!'