Gone AWOL

Posted on January 27, 2020 by leslie

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex

Gone AWOL 

Ilana Mercer on Megxit

His wife, a hero of sorts only in the TV series “Suits,” had hightailed it to Canada, leaving Harry Windsor, formerly known as Prince Harry, to deliver a concession speech. Make no mistake—no matter the moola they rake in, Harry and Meghan Markle have been sorely defeated and deflated.

Earlier in January 2020, the stumblebum Sussexes had smugly announced to the public that they “planned to carve out a progressive new role within this institution.” The unavoidable implication of that sleight-of-hand was that “this institution” (the monarchy) was just not woke enough for the two’s exquisitely honed sensibilities. Gallantly has Harry tried, since, to make his subjects believe that it is he, not Meghan Markle—his meddlesome American wife—who had attempted, and failed miserably, to outsmart Queen Elizabeth II. But the crass and callous rollout production, lacking in etiquette and contemptuous of royal protocol, fell flat. Continue reading →

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Boy’s Zone

Posted on January 23, 2020 by leslie

A scene from La Bohème by Puccini, Royal Opera 
©Tristram Kenton, 01/20

Boy’s Zone

La Bohème, opera in four acts, music by Giacomo Puccini, libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, Orchestra of the Royal Opera House conducted by Emmanuel Villaume, director Richard Jones, third revival of the 2017 production, Royal Opera House, Monday 20th January 2020, reviewed by Leslie Jones

La Bohème contains two contrasting views of life. One view, tinged with pessimism, is articulated by the painter Marcello, who is cynical and at times misanthropic. Referring to his on-off partner, he speaks bitterly of “…that enormous glacier, Musetta’s heart”. Musetta is avowedly attention seeking, an incorrigible flirt. Marcello contends that “Her favourite food is the heart…”. The other take on life is that embodied by the poet Rodolfo, an idealist and unrepentant romantic. He confides that “…in my happy poverty I squander like a prince my poems and songs of love”. He discerns in Mimi a kindred spirit and “…the dream I’d dream forever!”  Oh, sweet age of utopias!”, Marcello opines, “You hope and believe and all seems beautiful”. Continue reading →

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Punishing Agenda of the Anti-Punishment Movement

Posted on January 20, 2020 by leslie

Jean-Michel Basquiat, untitled, 1884

Punishing Agenda of the Anti-Punishment Movement

by Ilana Mercer

On November 29, 2019, a man now called the London Bridge terrorist slaughtered British student Jack Merritt. While the perpetrator has been named after a famous London landmark, his victim has been all but forgotten. The killer’s family was quick to condemn the London Bridge terrorist’s actions. The family of his victim—not so much. David Merritt, the late lad’s dad, criticized those who would like to see that killer and his ilk spend their lives in a prison cell. On December 2, Merritt the elder was already penning op-eds about clemency and leniency for criminals like the man who murdered his son. Such forgiveness would have been Jack’s wish, asserted Merritt senior, rather presumptuously—for how can the living speak for the dead?

David Merritt then proceeded to minimize what was murder with malice aforethought, by dismissing what his son’s killer did as a “tragic incident.” An insight into the progressive mindset can be gleaned from what Mr. Merritt wrote:

“If Jack could comment on his death – and the tragic incident on Friday 29 November – he would be livid. We would see him ticking it over in his mind before a word was uttered between us. Jack would understand the political timing with visceral clarity.
He would be seething at his death, and his life, being used to perpetuate an agenda of hate that he gave his everything fighting against. … What Jack would want from this is for all of us to walk through the door he has booted down, in his black Doc Martens.
That door opens up a world where we do not lock up and throw away the key. Where we do not give indeterminate sentences … Where we do not slash prison budgets, and where we focus on rehabilitation not revenge.” [Emphasis added.] Continue reading →

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Psychopathia Criminalis

Posted on January 18, 2020 by leslie

In the Bleak Mid Winter, Grateley

Psychopathia Criminalis

Richard Lynn, Race Differences in Psychopathic Personality: An Evolutionary Analysis, Augusta, GA: Washington Summit Publishers (In Press), Pp 368., US $ 29.95., reviewed by Evelyn Quinn

Professor Richard Lynn, the doyen of differential psychology, is well known for his work on national and racial differences in intelligence. In his latest book, he breaks new ground, proposing that there are also race differences in psychopathic personality. He was inspired here by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray’s The Bell Curve (1994). It showed that in the United States, blacks have the lowest intelligence and whites the highest, while Hispanics are intermediate. These intelligence differences supposedly explain why a number of social pathologies, notably crime, poverty, welfare dependency and single motherhood, are unevenly distributed across divergent populations.

Concerning black-white difference in crime rates, Herrnstein and Murray state that when IQ is taken into account, “…we are still left with a non-trivial black-white difference”. For instance, with crime rates set at 1.0 for whites, blacks had a rate of 6.5. When blacks and whites were matched for intelligence, the rates were reduced to a black-white ratio of 5:1. Thus, blacks with the same IQ as whites still had a higher crime rate. Herrnstein and  Murray conclude that some other factor must account for part of these race differences in crime. Lynn argues that this other factor is racial differences in psychopathic personality.

Continue reading →

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The U.S. as Judge, Jury, Executioner

Posted on January 13, 2020 by leslie

Qasem Soleimani

The U.S. as Judge, Jury, Executioner

Ilana Mercer on the assassination of Soleimani

Qasem Soleimani, an Iranian major general, was assassinated by a U.S. drone air strike, at the Baghdad International Airport (BIAP). The Iraqi-born Soleimani was traveling with one Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. Like Soleimani, al-Muhandis was an Iraqi, born and bred. He was even elected to the Iraqi Parliament, in 2005, until the U.S. intervened. (Yes, we intervene in other nations’ elections.)

Iraq’s caretaker prime minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, was furious, denouncing “What happened [as] a political assassination.” Unanimously, Iraqi lawmakers “responded to the Soleimani assassination by passing a nonbinding resolution calling on the government to end foreign-troop presence in Iraq.” Yes, it’s a complicated region. And America, sad to say, still doesn’t know Shia from Shinola.

The consensus in our country is that “Soleimani deserved to die.” That’s the party-line on Fox News—and beyond. It’s how assorted commentators on all networks prefaced their “positions” on the Jan. 3 killing of this Iraqi-born, Iranian general. Even Tucker Carlson—the only mainstream hope for Old Right, anti-war, America-First columns like this one—framed the taking out of Soleimani as the killing of a bad guy by good guys:

“There are an awful lot of bad people in this world. We can’t kill them all, it’s not our job.”

Continue reading →

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ENDNOTES, January 2020

Posted on January 11, 2020 by leslie

An oversized bust of Beethoven on the rear of the former piano shop and warehouse

Endnotes, January 2020

In this edition; Biss plays Beethoven and the BBC Philharmonic performs British tone poems, reviewed by Stuart Millson

This year marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven. Already, orchestras and ensembles across the world are planning commemorations – and here at home, BBC Radio 3 is devoting dozens of hours of broadcasting time to Germany’s great composer. How fitting, therefore, that we begin 2020 with an appreciation of a recently-issued CD, on the Orchid Classics label, of Beethoven piano sonatas, performed by the world-renowned soloist, teacher and academic, Jonathan Biss. Recorded at the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York, Biss plays three sonatas: No. 7 in D major, Op. 10; No. 18 in E flat major, Op. 31; and Beethoven’s last foray into this particular genre, the Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111 – dating from 1822.

With so many interpreters of the highest calibre scaling the heights of the Beethoven sonata repertoire (Barenboim, Brendel, Bavouzet et al) it is perhaps hard to make a case for yet another cycle. Yet somehow, Jonathan Biss brings a liquid, lyrical, lightness to the concert platform – especially in the truly delightful scherzo and menuetto movements of Sonata No. 18. The menuetto (with the additional markings, moderato e grazioso) typifies Beethoven’s ability to combine the pathos of a gentle little monologue, with a seriousness and nobility – ensuring that his music always rises above simple, pleasing emotion or tone-painting for the sake of effect. The opening movement of the sonata, too – an allegro – surprises the listener for its un-allegro-like feel. This movement’s animation comes in the form, not of a rush (as in the last part of the ‘Moonlight’ sonata, for example – Beethoven’s most famous solo piano work) but as lightly-flowing as a bubbling brook – the sort of happy, “awakening”, country spirit which infuses the Sixth Symphony, the infinitely cool and beautiful ‘Pastoral’.
Continue reading →

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The Passing of Traditional Canada

Posted on January 9, 2020 by leslie

Canadian Stamp, 1859

The Passing of Traditional Canada

by Mark Wegierski

On November 2, 2019, I attended the Annual Alumni Dinner of the University of Toronto Schools (UTS), where I was a pupil for six years between 1973-1979 (Grades 7 and 8, and four enriched /intensive years of high school). Four years at that time was an accelerated program, as Grades 9-13 were then standard in Ontario. 2019 was the 40th anniversary of the Class of ’79.

UTS was founded in 1910 as a “model” school for gifted male students. The plural in the name refers to the fact that a separate school for girls had originally been planned, but it didn’t actually materialize. UTS became a co-educational school in September 1973. Entrance to UTS is determined by competitive examinations, for which there are usually ten times more applicants than places available. In 1973, it was even more competitive, as 50% of the places had been reserved for girls. The incoming year at that time consisted of about 70 persons. The tuition fees in the 1970s were about $300 (Canadian) a year. The tuition fees now are about $27,000 (Canadian) a year. One of the reasons for this is that, in the early 1990s, the socialist New Democratic Party government of Ontario withdrew all public funding to the school, because of accusations of “elitism”. UTS could now be seen as just another expensive private school. The student body consists of about half East Asians, and a quarter South Asians, in marked contrast to the 1970s, when it was mainly white. The Alumni Dinner engendered gloomy reflections on how everything traditional is passing away in the current-day Canada. Continue reading →

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Women’s Legal Landmarks

Posted on December 30, 2019 by leslie

Mary Wollstonecraft, Original Stories from Real Life, Illustrated by William Blake

Women’s Legal Landmarks

Women’s Legal Landmarks, ed Erica Rackley and Rosemary Auchmuty, Hart Publishing, 2018, ISBN 978-1-78225-977-0, reviewed by Angela Ellis-Jones

This collection of short articles by mainly female authors marks the centenary of 1919, the  year which saw the entry of women into the legal profession. Each chapter covers a ‘landmark’, a significant  event in legal history as it affected women. The format for each chapter is four sections on Context, The Landmark, What Happened Next, and Significance. The landmarks are drawn from the four nations of the United Kingdom. The first chapter deals with the laws of the Welsh King Hywel Dda (early tenth century). Hywel codified the laws of Wales, which dealt with crime, property, tort, contract and the position of women: ‘Whilst they did not provide equality, the laws are noted and recognised for their enlightened attitude to  women’ (26) – far more so than in many other European countries at the time, including England. The next landmark is Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792), the fons et origo of the modern feminist movement, which called for equality and the extension of civil and political rights to women. The nineteenth century saw one of the most important of these rights extended, the Married Women’s Property Act 1882  (covered here), which enabled a  married woman to hold all the property brought by her to the marriage or subsequently acquired as her ‘separate property’.

The great majority of these legal landmarks covered occurred  in the twentieth century. They include pieces of legislation e.g. The Representation of the People Act 1918, which enfranchised women over 30, the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919, which enabled women to enter the professions and public functions, and events  e.g. the Dagenham Car Plant Strike 1968, when women won a pay rise which led to the passing of the Equal Pay Act 1970. Continue reading →

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Over the Water – over the Hill

Posted on December 30, 2019 by leslie

Portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie, by Louis Gabriel Blanchet, 1738

Over the Water – over the Hill

Bill Hartley, in the land of lost causes                                  

There is romance to lost causes that people find attractive. In the North of England, which has plenty to choose from, there is a society devoted to the Jacobites. Judging by the post nominals held by some members, this is a serious historical society which has attracted eminent scholars. However, an acquaintance of mine, a retired academic, tells me that it has a fundamentalist wing.

Not many of us lie awake at night struggling with the question of a monarch appointed by the state versus one put there by the deity. According to my acquaintance though, there are members of this society who believe in the divine right of kings. Clearly, in Britain, there is a group to meet the needs of almost any opinion, no matter how outdated or odd.

In the past, it might take a long time for kindred spirits to find each other and form a club. Things happen more quickly these days aided by social media. For fans of lost causes it is also worth looking on Facebook at the various Jeremy Corbyn supporters’ pages. At first it all seemed light hearted. There was a pre-election call for supporters to get out and help in a marginal seat. No-one seemed to mind when I posted a message saying that I couldn’t find one in County Durham. Post-election, the messages began to change, and the Branch Davidians retreated into the online equivalent of the Waco compound. Originally, messages had been of the simple and supportive kind: Mr Corbyn, decent chap, misrepresented in the media, man of principle etc. etc. The sort of thing you might expect from people rallying behind their leader. Subsequently, they took on a darker hue. Continue reading →

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Generation Identity

Posted on December 24, 2019 by leslie

Abstract Art Britto

Generation Identity

The Identitarians: the Movement Against Globalism and Islam in Europe, José Pedro Zúquete, 2018, University of Notre Dame Press, reviewed by Ed Dutton

José Pedro Zúquete is a Research Fellow at the Social Sciences Institute of Lisbon University. He received his doctorate from Bath University and has also worked at Harvard. One of the key advantages of Zúquete’s comprehensive study of ethno-nationalist politics is that, unlike some political scientists who have explored related areas, he is scrupulously neutral. He sees himself as an ethnographer. He attends meetings, imbibes literature, and interviews those interested in ethno-nationalist politics, including such relatively well-known names as Richard Spencer, Martin Sellner, Alex Kurtagić and the Finnish philosopher Kai Murros.

Indeed, in his postscript, Zúqute notes that reviewers of the manuscript told him that it was ‘depressing’ – because it indicates that ethno-nationalism in Europe is becoming more influential – and that he should end the book with ‘a sort of therapeutic, healing finale’ which would ‘appeal to students’ humanism and tolerance’ (p.364). He rightly refused, insisting that the book should be an objective, academic analysis.

Zúquete begins with the history of this nationalist cultural movement. Its precursor is the French Nouvelle Droit (‘New Right’) which took off in 1969 with the formation of GRECE (Research Study Group for European Civilization). The leading light in this group is the French philosopher Alain de Benoist. This thinker, influenced by the German philosopher Ernst Jünger (1895-1998), who explored how war could be a transcendental experience, is highly critical of both globalization and Christianity. Continue reading →

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