Kamala’s Values Cudgel

Posted on March 18, 2019 by leslie

Kamala Harris, with a supporter

Kamala’s Values Cudgel

by Ilana Mercer

Sen. Kamala Harris talks a lot about “our American values.” Ditto the other female candidates who’ve declared for president in the busy Democratic field.

“Our American values are under attack,” Harris has tweeted. “Babies are being ripped from their parents at the border …” As to her own proud “know your values moment,” the Democrat from California pinpoints the U.S. Senate Supreme Court confirmation proceedings inflicted on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

To manipulate Americans, politicians always use the values cudgel. With respect to immigration, the idea is to impress upon gullible Americans that the world has a global Right of Return to the U.S. Fail to accept egalitarian immigration for all into America and you are flouting the very essence of Americanism. Or, to use liberal argumentation, you’re Hitler. Continue reading →

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Getting to Know Benno Landsberger

Posted on March 16, 2019 by leslie

Benno Landsberger, credit Google Sites

Getting to Know Benno Landsberger

Luděk Vacín, The Unknown Benno Landsberger: ‘A Biographical Sketch of an Assyriological Altmeister’s Development, Exile, and Personal Life’, (Harrassowitz Verlag, 2018), $45.00. Pp.132

Assyriologists in recent times have ruminated on their own discipline. Historical sketches of notable characters, and depictions of the start-up of specialized journals and cuneiform series, have prompted scholars to think long and hard about their roots and origins. The number of articles written on these topics is accumulating. The field is not large. But certain figures do stand out.

Benno Landsberger (1890-1968) was a pioneer of Assyriological studies. He stood atop the field of Sumerian and Akkadian lexicographical researches in his day. Even an encyclopedic scholar like W.F. Albright (1891-1971) described him as “incomparable” (BASOR Apr.1957; p.35). Landsberger (BL) held notable Professorships; his writings are known within a small circle of scholars. A much smaller circle inside that one includes handfuls of erudite men and women who are equipped with the knowledge to penetrate the cuneiform mysteries of Mesopotamian worlds. BL was a student and disciple of Heinrich Zimmern (1862-1931), a distinguished Assyriologist who went his own way in his researches, and whose scholarship BL preferred to the erudition of Friedrich Delitzsch (1850-1922). Continue reading →

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ENDNOTES, March 2019

Posted on March 15, 2019 by leslie

Scenery from Svendborgsund,  A quiet summer day, by IEC Rasmussen

ENDNOTES, March 2019

In this edition; contemporary British music on the Sheva label: the Danish National Seasonal Songbook, from OUR Recordings; reviewed by Stuart Millson

Hector Berlioz, Grande Messe des Morts (Requiem), a concert at St Paul’s, reviewed by Leslie Jones

One of the most exciting discoveries made by The Quarterly Review Endnotes column (see Endnotes, February 2018) was the music – and large discography – of the modern English composer, Peter Seabourne; a figure almost completely ignored by the British music establishment. An identifiably 20th and 21st-century composer, Seabourne strongly identifies with our musical tradition – combining the stretched tonality of modern music with the understandable forms and textures associated with Debussy, Takemitsu, Britten and early, romantic-era Schoenberg. A guiding force in the world of the prestigious (but niche) Sheva classical label, the composer has offered recording opportunities to several other overlooked colleagues, including the former choral scholar, student at the Guildhall School of Music, organist and choirmaster, Gary Higginson – an equally prolific, yet neglected artist.

Astonishingly, given that Radio 3 has never mentioned his name or offered any lucrative commission for his music, Higginson has composed over a 30- to 40-year period – writing nearly 200 works. Influenced by such English composers as the symphonist, Edmund Rubbra, and by Carey Blyton (who composed much intriguing minimalist music for BBC Television, particularly for the early Dr. Who programmes), Higginson creates an atmosphere of remote landscapes: the opening of Two Pieces for Solo Flute, Op. 62, suggesting Debussy or Varese, but within moments, giving way to a more playful, pastoral sensation. A rare treat, here, to enjoy Maltese flautist, Laura Cioffi – whose playing, like a painter’s delicate strokes of watercolour, have a gorgeous finesse on Sheva’s almost perfect recording. Continue reading →

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They Shall not Grow Old

Posted on March 13, 2019 by leslie

Canadian soldiers mark a cross for one of their fallen brethen. Original image source: Nationaal Archief, Color by Great War in Colour; Credit Pinterest

They Shall not Grow Old

A film directed by Peter Jackson, reviewed by Robert Henderson

This is a unique film in terms of its making. Peter Jackson has taken contemporary footage from the First World War and coloured the original black and white film in the most detailed and lifelike fashion, using special software to bring it to a speed which makes the movement entirely lifelike. Amongst the many arresting sights are the early tanks which were surprisingly efficient at riding over the very difficult rough ground created by the vast trench systems which all too easily dissolved into seas of mud.

Jackson used lip readers to discover what people were saying and then voiced their words using the accents the speakers would probably have used based on their regiments. British regiments have a strong tradition of recruiting from particular areas, and were what is known as Pal’s Battalions”.

Finally, he added sound effects for guns, shell and bomb blasts and even a yellow green mist to replicate the use of chlorine gas. The attention to detail is astonishing. Continue reading →

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Ivanka the Terrible

Posted on March 11, 2019 by leslie

Ivanka the Terrible

by Ilana Mercer

Donald Trump went into a gathering of special interests, on March 6. It comprised Goldman-Sachs Democrat Ivanka Trump, American multinational CEOs like Apple’s Tim Cook and assorted Chamber of Commerce lobbyists.

The president of the United States (POTUS) then emerged with assurances to all those lowly American workers sick of rising wages and growing employment opportunities. He was now fully committed to the importation of still more foreign workers to “give … to large companies.” Yes! He listened! Deplorables were getting sick of winning.

Ivanka, who clearly calls the shots on the un-American Workforce Policy Advisory Board, sermonized blithely about retraining American workers (who don’t have daddies to hire them). All this made me long for the time Gen. John Kelly, formerly White House chief of staff, was present to stop first daughter Ivanka from, as the general put it, “playing government.”

Last year, when the same kind of cabal tried to make Trump dance to its drums, POTUS responded with his notorious “shithole countries” epithet. Was he not proven right in his aversion to accelerating the tipping point in our own country? Haiti is located in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba. The country is forever convulsed by political or natural disasters. In January of 2010, this, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere—where four out of five people live in poverty and more than half in abject poverty (NYT)—was struck by a massive, magnitude-7.0 earthquake. The rescuers, spokespersons, geological surveyors and geophysicists; the missionaries, medicine and military men and women; the aid-deliverers—most were Westerners. Without the West, Haitians would no longer be hobbling along in their post-apocalyptic zombie land. Continue reading →

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Water, in the Leader’s Vision

Posted on March 7, 2019 by leslie

Royal Opera House, Oman

Water, in the Leader’s Vision

by Bill Hartley                                                                            

There is something reassuring about absolute monarchy. For one thing, the English language newspaper Muscat Daily is free of the usual political discourse. Coming from a Brexit obsessed Britain, this is no bad thing. Instead, a headline may announce the latest edicts about to be signed into law by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos, ruler of Oman. The Sultan’s authority is inviolable and he expects absolute subjugation to his will. Beneath him, so to speak, is a consultative assembly and its proceedings are broadcast on the state television channel. It resembles a sales conference with elderly delegates. That apart, the channel also dedicates itself to promoting Oman. And under the Sultan’s rule, dating back to 1970, when he deposed his father (with British help), there is much to be proud of. A country which then had scarcely moved beyond the Middle Ages now has multi lane highways, sophisticated healthcare (ranked a few years ago at number eight by the World Health Organisation) and fresh water for all. Indeed, the latter was recently the subject of a short piece, delightfully entitled ‘Water in the Leader’s Vision’. Continue reading →

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Crisis 2000: Insurrection in the United States!

Posted on March 6, 2019 by leslie

Credit: Noble Night Games

Crisis 2000: Insurrection in the
United States!

 by Mark Wegierski

Magazine: GameFix: The Forum of Ideas (Sacramento, California: Game Publications Group) no 2, November 1994

Game: Crisis 2000: Insurrection in the United States! enclosed in GameFix

The subtitle The Forum of Ideas was dropped in issue 8; the publication was renamed Competitive Edge, starting with issue 10. The company has since renamed itself One Small Step – OSS.

This magazine and game ironically appeared in the month when the democratic process was supposed to deliver a major change in the direction of the American polity – the election of a Republican majority in the House of Representatives, as well as the Senate, with Newt Gingrich becoming the Speaker. However, the promised (or feared) “conservative revolution” never took place. Things rolled on as they had before, and Bill Clinton easily won re-election in 1996. However, one of the ironies of the Clinton presidency was that he balanced the federal budget, introduced restrictions on welfare, and did not impede the economic recovery of the mid to late 1990s.

GameFix/Competitive Edge originally marketed itself as producing “wargames for people who don’t like wargames”. The conflict simulation games they offered were designed to be simple to play, at least by the usual wargame standards, and to be relatively quick and easy to finish, often in less than an hour. GameFix/Competitive Edge had intended to feature non-military games dealing with mountain-climbing, various major-league sports, etc. Since the beginning of the Twenty-First century, the publication schedule of the magazine slowed to a crawl, as the company was going through difficulties. Continue reading →

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Anti-White Politics?

Posted on March 4, 2019 by leslie

Jussie Smollett

Anti-White Politics?

by Ilana Mercer

Every time a manifestly racist, anti-white event goes down, which is frequently, conservative media call it “identity politics” as in “The left is playing identity politics.”

Whatever is convulsing the country, it’s not identity politics. For blacks are not being pitted against Hispanics. Hispanics are not being sicced on Asians, and Ameri-Indians aren’t being urged to attack the aforementioned groups. Rather, they’re all piling on honky. Hence, anti-white politics or animus.

The ire of the multiculturalists is directed exclusively at whites and their putative privilege. Anti-whitism is endemic and systemic. Take “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett. Smollett deceived the country and the Chicago Police Department about having fallen prey to a hate crime, which, it transpired, he had crudely orchestrated. Continue reading →

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22 July

Posted on March 2, 2019 by leslie

Anders Breivik

22 July

Film (2018) directed by Paul Greengrass, reviewed by Robert Henderson

Having adopted the disguise of a policeman, on 22 July 2011 Anders Breivik exploded a bomb near a government building in the Norwegian capital Oslo, killing eight people. He then went to the nearby island of Utøya where a Workers’ Youth League (AUF) summer camp was being held. There he shot and killed 77 people and wounded around two hundred more. Most of the victims were young. Breivik’s justification for the attack was that Norway was being betrayed by an elite who were allowing large numbers of immigrants, especially Muslim immigrants, to radically change the nature of Norwegian society.

His killing rampage is the starting point of the film. Breivik is shown as a merciless but  efficient killer, as he must have been, considering the number of dead and wounded. After the killings, the film follows two plot lines: that of Breivik and that of the Hansen family. We meet Viljar Hanssen (Jonas Strand Gravli) early in the film when he and his brother Torje Hanssen (Isak Bakli Aglen) are at the summer camp. Viljar is selected to address the Workers’ Youth League campers. He trots out the routine internationalist line about the wonders of diversity and how everyone from anywhere should be welcomed. Shortly after this, Breivik begins shooting. Viljar and his brother Torje escape death but Viljar suffers serious wounds including one to the head. A substantial subsequent part of the film is devoted to Viljar’s long and painful recuperation. His part in the story culminates with Breivik refusing to look at him as he makes a victim statement to the court. Continue reading →

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Good News for Ancient Anatolians

Posted on March 1, 2019 by leslie

 

Raphael, St Paul Preaching in Athens (1515)

Good News for Ancient Anatolians

David A. DeSilva, The Letter to the Galatians, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, Eerdmans, 2018. Pp. I-LXXIX, 1-542. $55.00

Interesting historical relics turned up in the 19thcentury. In 1834, a Frenchman named Charles Texier discovered the ruins of Boğazköy in Anatolia. Cuneiform tablets were found there in 1893 by Ernest Chantre. Professional excavations began in 1906. Aside from notations in the Bible, little was known about the Hittites. Their hieroglyphic inscriptions were hard to understand, but Bedřich Hrozný, Professor of Cuneiform Studies and History of the Ancient Orient, finally grasped the idiom of the Hittite language in 1915. Another door to a once concealed world in antiquity was opened. Inhabitants of modern Anatolia are quite unlike the inhabitants of ancient Asia Minor. The religion of today differs from the religions of yesteryear. In Greco-Roman times Galatia comprised parts of what is known today as central Anatolia. There was Jewish settlement in the district. Diversely populated, belief in god(s) was prevalent.

The diffusion of Christianity around the Mediterranean Sea was slow; it followed the footprints of devotees who traveled. By the time of the Apostle Paul, religion was still of importance. His several missionary journeys, recorded in the text of The Acts of the Apostles, evidence how important it was to him. The resistance he met in select places proves how much Judaism and Greco-Roman cults meant to others. His encounters with people in Galatia (Acts 16:6) were noteworthy: some of them believed his preaching and exchanged the god(s) of their ancestors for a newfound faith which centered upon a man named Jesus. The book under review deals with one of the oldest of Paul’s Greek letters to communities of Christians in ancient times. Continue reading →

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