Is Anybody Out There?

Posted on July 3, 2021 by leslie

Seven Spiritualists, 1906, credit Wikipedia

Is Anybody Out There?

by Bill Hartley

It’s not uncommon for churches to be turned over to new uses, selling, for example, anything from carpets to bathroom fittings. Often they were built to serve a population crowded into streets of terraced houses, close to places of employment. Darlington in County Durham has several former churches which have gone over to retailing. On the north side of town, where the route of the Stockton and Darlington Railway still bisects the main road, is a working class district which has been spared the joys of multiculturalism. The only people noticeably different are the Chinese who run the Heng Fu takeaway and similar establishments. No-one is going to starve here.

However, the district shouldn’t be considered culturally insular. On the main road  is a place where you can get a Reiki head massage, or for £50 experience past life regression – an interesting way to spend time after dropping off your vacuum cleaner for repair. There are small businesses here offering everything from furniture repair to plumbing. Among them is the Coast to Coast emporium which sells exotic plants and animals. It leaves one (perhaps unfairly) with the image of a newly sold tarantula or corn snake, far from home, slowly dying in unsuitable accommodation. Continue reading →

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Ivan the Terrible

Posted on July 3, 2021 by leslie

Still from Ivan the Terrible, director Sergei Eisenstein, credit Wikidata

Ivan the Terrible

Rimsky-Korsakov’s Ivan the Terrible, Grange Park Opera, reviewed by David Truslove

An opera impresario needs enterprise and tireless zeal and Wasfi Kani of Grange Park Opera has both. This season she has made the bold decision to include two unknown works: a world premiere by Anthony Bolton (whose career began as an investment banker) and a neglected opera by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Ivan the Terrible (originally The Maid of Pskov) has not been heard in Britain for over a century. But, as the first of his fifteen operas, written while he was still a serving officer in the Russian navy and sharing an apartment with Mussorgsky, Ivan the Terrible is a remarkably assured work, a portrait of flawed humanity, oppression and doomed love. Premiered in St Petersburg in January 1873, it was performed in Paris and London in 1909 when Serge Diaghilev introduced the renowned Russian bass Feodor Chaliapin. However, since then this richly scored work, with its ceaseless flow of lyrical invention, stirring choruses and touching romance, has become a musical footnote. Continue reading →

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ENDNOTES, July 2021

Posted on July 1, 2021 by leslie

St Mary’s Church, Horsham

ENDNOTES, July 2021

In this edition: Blissful sonatas at the English Music Festival; contemporary organ music from the United States, reviewed by Stuart Millson

Classical music has endured a turbulent time during the last year. The depredations of the Covid crisis, the loss of cultural self-confidence in the West – which has resulted in institutions such as the Royal Academy of Music* examining ways to “decolonise” (i.e. make less European) the art-form that constitutes its very raison d’etre – have all inflicted lasting damage. Even those, such as English Music Festival Director, Em Marshall-Luck, who continue – against all the odds – to run concerts and make recordings during this time of near-paralysis, provide us with stark warnings. For example, in her introduction to this year’s Festival programme, Em tells us the stark reality now before us:

‘A survey** conducted last year revealed that, as a result of the impact of COVID-19 and event cancellations, 64% of musicians are considering leaving the profession permanently. The irrevocable loss of so many talented artists will inevitably result in a significant contraction of the UK music industry, so we need to do all we can to keep concerts going as much as possible, to succour our artists and prevent any more such loss.’

Continue reading →

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When Bloodbath becomes Bacchanalia

Posted on June 29, 2021 by leslie

Candace Owens, credit Wikipedia

When Bloodbath becomes Bacchanalia

by Ilana Mercer

In an era where everything is captured on camera, the cold-blooded murder of Gyovanny Arzuaga and Yasmin Perez is particularly chilling. The occasion was the Puerto Rican Day Parade in Chicago, Saturday last. The location: West Division Street on the Northwest Side, at Humboldt Park. South Africa style—and for no good reason—a bunch of “fellas,” as Colin Flaherty is wont to say, leapt out of their vehicle, surrounded a stationary car, pulled a young couple out of it and shot each in the head, while hopping about and gesticulating in feral glee.  Watch:

https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1406590701442256908

There was no detonating rage or purpose to the act—only heightened arousal. The scene had the ritualistic quality of a voodoo ceremony, minus the wide-eyed ululation. Running commentary offered by the videographer had the same flat affect: folks, this is good fun, but hey, stay cool. Chill.

“I don’t think this crime will be ‘disappeared’ so easily,” tweeted one “Musil Protege.” “It may be worth watching Tucker tonight. He has developed a relationship with Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez,” posited “Musil.” The alderman is “a reasonable law-and-order Democrat, who has become something of a thorn in the side of Mayor Lori Lightfoot.” Continue reading →

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Whitewashing the Great Terror

Posted on June 27, 2021 by leslie

Stalin, 1945, credit Wikipedia

Whitewashing the Great Terror

By Frank Ellis

Guilt and innocence become senseless notions: “guilty” is he who stands in the way of the natural or historical process which has passed judgement over “inferior races”, over individuals “unfit to live” over “dying classes and decadent peoples”. Terror executes these judgements and before its court, all concerned are subjectively innocent:the murdered because they did nothing against the system, and the murderers because they do not really murder but execute a death sentence pronounced by some higher tribunal […] Terror is lawfulness, if law is the law of the movement of some suprahuman force, Nature or History.

Hannah Arendt[1]

    1. Introduction: The Great Terror (Ezhovshchina)
    2. Stalin’s Reasons for the Great Terror
    3. Interrogation, Torture and Confessions
    4. The Role of Terror in the Soviet State
    5. Stalin Manipulated by the NKVD?
    6. The Great Terror was not confined to the Red Army
    7. No Evidence of Large Agent Networks in the Soviet Union Run by Foreign Intelligence Agencies
    8. Stalin’s Failure to Heed Military Intelligence Data 1940-194
    9. Further Evidence that Internal Considerations of Power outweighed Concerns about any External Threat
    10. The Heydrich Dossier and Archives
    11. The Gang of 13: Stalin names the Core Conspirators
    12. Faking the Past in order to Control the Present
    13. The Heart of the Military-Political Conspiracy
    14. Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov: No Comrade in Arms
    15. Inconsistent Explanations of Stalin’s Behaviour
    16. The Party Mind, Ideology and Revolutionary Justice
    17. Ending the Great Terror and the Meaning of Zagovor (Conspiracy)
    18. Conclusion

Continue reading →

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Empirical Wisdom Confirms Analytical Truth

Posted on June 20, 2021 by leslie

Charles Murray speaking at FreedomFest, credit Wikipedia

Empirical Wisdom Confirms Analytical Truth

by Ilana Mercer

My 2011 book, “Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa,” rests on two axiomatic truths, and I excerpt (pp 40-41 & 126-128, 2011):

“In all, no color should be given to the claim that race is not a factor in the incidence of crime in the US and in South Africa. The vulgar individualist will contend that such broad statements about aggregate group characteristics are collectivist, ergo false. He would be wrong.”

“Generalizations,” I continued, “provided they are substantiated by hard evidence, not hunches, are not incorrect. Science relies on the ability to generalize to the larger population observations drawn from a representative sample. People make prudent decisions in their daily lives based on probabilities and generalities. That one chooses not to live in a particular crime-riddled county or country in no way implies that one considers all individual residents there to be criminals, only that a sensible determination has been made, based on statistically significant data, as to where scarce and precious resources—one’s life and property—are best invested.” (Into The Cannibal’s Pot, pp 40-41)

In short, generalizations about certain group characteristics are, in aggregate, valid. These, however, do not contradict the imperative to treat each and every individual as an individual. Continue reading →

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Psychopathia Americana

Posted on June 15, 2021 by leslie

Sadak in Search of the Waters of Oblivion, by John Martin, credit Wikipedia

Psychopathia Americana

By Ilana Mercer

There is this New York City psychiatrist. Her name is Dr Aruna Khilanani. In a lecture to the Yale School of Medicine’s Child Study Center, no less, she likened whites to “demented, violent predators who think that they are saints or superheroes.” She then let the septic tank that is her mind overflow. Said Dr. Khilanani:

I had fantasies of unloading a revolver into the head of any white person that got in my way, burying their body, and wiping my bloody hands as I walked away relatively guiltless with a bounce in my step. Like I did the world a fucking favor. (Time stamp: 7:17)

For her murderous fantasies against the pigmentally deficient, Dr. Khilanani should have been criminally profiled by the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit. This primitive reptilian brain might be a danger to the community waiting to happen. Instead, morality has been inverted. Rather than being hobbled by her deviant views, Dr. Khilanani has been approved and elevated at every step of her privileged romp through America’s institutions. Someone in authority invited her to give a talk to the nation’s top university, Yale, an intellectual shithole, really. Someone high-up approved of, even liked, the topic of this woman’s address, which was, “The Psychopathic Problem of the White Mind.” Continue reading →

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Alien versus Predator

Posted on June 13, 2021 by leslie

Alien versus Predator

by Ilana Mercer

For the purpose of making your way adaptively and smartly in a society that is systemically anti-white, you need to understand what distinguishes Critical Race Theory from Marxism and quit the socialism/Marxism theoretical escapism, for once and for all.

Get this into your head: for conflict in society, Marxism fingers social class; critical race theory saddles whites. You, if you are white!

More on this do-or-die distinction in my latest YouTube video, “Distinguish Critical Race Theory From Marxism: Your Life Depends On It!”

https://youtu.be/zSCMuqvQ7Mc

David Vance and I further flesh out the Marxism vs. Critical Race Theory vexation in our weekly, Wednesday chat.

Whatever conservatives think of Marxism—and this writer follows the antiwar, anti-state, free market Austrian School of economics—Marxism in the origin is serious political economy; an intellectual treatise with gravitas. Critical Race Theory is a priori gibberish.

Scrap that: befitting the boors who originated CRT anti-whitism—the theory is based on reasoning backwards: if B then A; if white then … complete that sentence with all manner of evil that comes to mind.

We also discuss uni-party politics, the futility of it, and the war on MAGA folks, all 74 million of us. And, prompted by David, I might have thrown in a quip about plagiarism made way back, in a witty joust between Oscar Wilde and James McNeill Whistler—two giants of the West your kids should know, but don’t, because of critical race rot. Continue reading →

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Hi Ho, Silver! Away!

Posted on June 5, 2021 by leslie

The Lone Ranger and Silver, 1956, credit Wikipedia

Hi Ho, Silver! Away!

Bill Hartley on late divorce

Predictably, Bill and Melinda Gates’ separation has attracted a great deal of attention: the eye watering size of their personal fortune made sure of that. Prompted by this the BBC4 Today programme interviewed a divorce lawyer. She explained that the demographic of her casework has altered. These days it’s mostly people like the Gates, in their sixties, who are seeing her about divorce. The statistics support what she had to say. As long ago as 2009, whilst divorce in other age groups was falling by 11% per annum, there was a rise of 4% among the over sixties and the trend appears to be continuing.

The lawyer went on to cite various reasons for this trend; couples ‘grow apart’, mortgages have been paid off and pensions assured etc. Anyone with divorce in mind can find a great deal of ‘advice’ available online. Interestingly the source tends to be lawyers themselves and who can blame them? Obviously this is a growing market and they want a share. Looking beyond, even the media isn’t impartial when it comes to the post divorce experience. A recent edition of The Times featured a fifty something woman, looking somewhat younger than her years, talking up the benefits of single life. Naturally it suits some people but there was little mention of the drawbacks. Continue reading →

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Tolkien’s Defence of Christendom

Posted on June 2, 2021 by leslie

Edward Burne-Jones, The Beguiling of Merlin, credit Wikipedia

Tolkien’s Defence of Christendom

by Mark Wegierski

[This essay is based on a presentation co-authored with Wojciech Szymanski, M.A., which was read at the Fantastic Literature Conference 2016 (Religious Topics in Fantastic Literature) at the University of Lodz (Lodz, Poland), September 19-20, 2016.]

J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) is widely regarded as the archetypal author of fantasy in the modern period, or what is called “high fantasy”. Some have said that Tolkien both inaugurated and closed out the high fantasy subgenre, since anything that follows him is bound to appear derivative. Over the years, there has been a wide-ranging debate on whether Tolkien’s The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings trilogy (originally published in three volumes in 1954-55) are “pagan” or “Christian” in spirit. The presence of the Elves and other fantastically imagined races, as well as the veneration of nature, are said to make these works more “pagan” – rather than rooted in Christian monotheism.

In real life, however, Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic. There have been a number of works tracing Tolkien’s Catholic inspiration for the so-called Middle Earth legendarium, or the Arda Mythos as it is sometimes called. Notable among these works is Craig Bernthal’s Tolkien’s Sacramental Vision: Discerning the Holy in Middle Earth (Second Spring Books, 2014). Given the psychological matrix of devout Catholicism from which Tolkien’s works sprang, it would hardly be surprising if his creative endeavours did not carry at least a tinge of Christian underpinnings. Continue reading →

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