Do We Still Have a Country?

Posted on July 26, 2019 by leslie

Do We Still Have a Country?

by Ilana Mercer

How do you know you don’t have a country?

Simply this:

Every single passive, non-aggressive act you take to repel people crossing your borders is considered de facto illegal, or inhumane, or in violation of international law, or in contravention of some hidden clause in the U.S. Constitution.

So say the experts and their newly minted jurisprudence.

You may tell a toddler, “You can’t go there.” But you may not tell an illegal trespasser, “Hey, turn back. You can’t come into the U.S. at whim.”

Please understand that not giving someone something they demand or desire is a negative act. Or, more accurately, an inaction. You are not actively doing anything to harm that person by denying them something.

Unless, of course, what you are denying them is their right to their life, their right to their liberty, their right to their property. Those are the only things you may not deny to innocent others. These interlopers do not have a right to, or a lien on, your liberty and property. Continue reading →

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A Family Romance – review of L’Arlesiana

Posted on July 24, 2019 by leslie

Federico (Samuel Sakker) and Vivetta (Fflur Wyn), photo by Ali Wright

A Family Romance – review of L’Arlesiana

Opera in three acts, music composed by Francesco Cilea, libretto by Leopoldo Marenco after Alphonse Daudet, new production by Investec Opera Holland Park, City of London Sinfonia and Opera Holland Park Chorus conducted by Dane Lam, directed by Oliver Platt, reviewed by Leslie Jones

Ignore what you may have heard about L’Arlesiana; that the libretto is uninspired and only merits a concert performance, such as that given recently by Deutsche Oper (see Rebecca Schmit, Classical Voice North America, March 19th 2018); or that only the famous aria Lamento di Federico, È la solita storia del pastore, is vaut le voyage. For as critic Tim Ashley remarked in his perceptive review of Holland Park’s 2003 production, “The whole is a lesson in how to make an opera that is by no means a masterpiece come vividly alive”.

Freud’s epoch-making The Interpretation of Dreams was published in 1899. In 1897, L’Arlesiana was premiered in the Teatro Lirico, Milan, with Enrico Caruso, no less, as Federico. There is synchronicity here. We have a mother, Rosa Mamai, who is obsessed with her first born son Federico and a son fixated on his mother. “Mother you will always be my greatest love”, Federico confides. Baldassare’s story of a wolf savaging a she-goat has a distinctly Freudian flavour. Continue reading →

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Visiting the People’s Republic of Poland

Posted on July 22, 2019 by leslie

Wojciech Jaruzelski

Visiting the People’s Republic of Poland

by Mark Wegierski

The founding date of the People’s Republic of Poland (Polish acronym: PRL) is considered to be July 22, 1944, when the so-called Lublin Manifesto was issued. The PRL in its foundation and early years was the savage imposition of Soviet Communism on an unwilling Polish nation. Over a 100,000 Poles died resisting this imposition, during a vicious conflict that raged until 1949.

However, the death of Stalin in 1953 led to an eventual liberalization of the regime in 1956, during the so-called Polish October. Wladyslaw Gomulka, who had been briefly jailed by the Stalinists in the earlier period, became First Secretary of the Polish United Workers’ Party (Polish acronym: PZPR) – the main Communist party. He inaugurated the period known as “The Thaw”, essentially “polonizing” the regime, and moving it away from the harsh totalitarianism of the Stalinist period.

As a result of the disturbances of the 1968-1970 period, Edward Gierek came to power as First Secretary of the PZPR. He inaugurated a period of cultural and economic liberalization that even decades later is sometimes dubbed “the golden years of Gierek”. Gierek used Western loans to build up the economy, with Poland becoming the tenth greatest industrial power in the world. There was also a quickening of culture, with a world-acclaimed Polish cinema and theatre. Gierek initiated an outreach to Polish communities abroad, notably in the United States, Canada, and Britain. Young Polish-Americans and Polish-Canadians were encouraged to travel to Poland and discover their Polish roots. The extent of this outreach has never been matched by any subsequent Polish governments. There was also an emphasis on native Slavic themes in art, as well as on Polish folk-culture, in all its splendid regional variety, including song, dance, and the decorative arts. Continue reading →

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In Search of Canadian Identity

Posted on July 22, 2019 by leslie

In Search of Canadian Identity

 by Mark Wegierski

Canada, which Pat Buchanan once called a “Soviet Canuckistan”, has serious problems combating the ceaseless self-undermining of its military forces and traditions. But it is also having a difficult time defining a coherent identity for itself. For example, there have been frequent calls to eliminate the traditional oath to Queen Elizabeth and her heirs and successors, as a condition for receiving Canadian citizenship. Since the 1960s, Canada, which was once proud of its British heritage, has increasingly redefined itself by its “uniquely compassionate social-democratic political culture”, expunging other, more traditional and meaningful bases of national identification.

Canadian political and cultural leaders have based this new national “identity” largely on an embrace of the lifestyles, customs, and traditions of Canada’s latest immigrant groups. But if Canada is to be defined by its multiculturalism – that is, by the cultures brought here from the outside, especially in the last few decades – then this implies that there is actually no such thing as Canadian identity and culture. So why bother funding the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), or the Canada Council for the Arts?

Former Canadian ambassador Martin Collacott’s report for the Fraser Institute and books by Daniel Stoffman and Diane Francis have challenged this hitherto unquestioned immigration/multiculturalism consensus in Canada, but such contrary opinions are given little hearing. Continue reading →

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Victorian Values

Posted on July 19, 2019 by leslie

Oscar Wilde

Victorian Values

by Bill Hartley

In May of this year the Guardian featured a story about feminist author Naomi Wolf who had recently published a book called Outrages. The book has been described as ‘the dramatic, buried history of how nineteenth century laws gave the state new powers to criminalise love between men….’ The story quoted Ms Wolf telling the Observer ‘People widely believed that the last executions for sodomy were in 1830 but I read every Old Bailey record throughout the nineteenth century, so I know not only did they continue but they got worse’. One can only imagine Ms Wolf’s discomfiture when on the Radio 3 Arts and Ideas programme writer and broadcaster Matthew Sweet drew her attention to the meaning of the very precise historical legal term ‘death recorded’. It wasn’t evidence of an execution; in fact, it indicated the opposite. Mr Sweet added that there was no evidence of the Victorians executing anyone for sodomy.

It seems that in our present Age of Offence some people are prepared to believe anything about those awful Victorians especially when it buttresses contemporary beliefs and prejudices; consequently it wouldn’t be difficult to imagine a modern reader uncritically accepting accounts of judicial slaughter in the Victorian era. Fortunately, Ms Wolf says she has alerted her publishers and so the Victorians have had that charge against them dropped. Continue reading →

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Driven to Blackface?

Posted on July 15, 2019 by leslie

Rachel Dolezal, Credit 93.1 WZAK

Driven to Blackface?

by Ilana Mercer

Nkechi Diallo was recently charged with welfare fraud in Spokane, Washington State. Back in 2015, Diallo was better known as Rachel Dolezal. She has since rechristened herself. Rachel Dolezal, if you’re from Deep Space, is the lily-white woman who, in 2015, dared to “identify” as a black woman.

The “Racism Industrial Complex” is populated with frauds, shysters, imposters, phonies and morons; black, white and 50 shades of gray. Ms. Dolezal had been posing as all of these, teaching Africana Studies at the Bush college of Eastern Washington University. Our American Idiocracy confers the respect and the authority of a pedagogue on many like her, allowing them to spread the disease to college kids and beyond. So, why not Rachel?

Why, the Age of the Idiot sees killers exculpated, just because they kill. As the faulty reasoning goes, if an individual has murdered, raped, robbed or defrauded—then he or she must have been abused, neglected, racially oppressed (if black or brown); not wealthy enough, mentally ill, lacking in self-esteem. Anything but plain bad, slothful, sociopathic or parasitical. The more aberrant the crime; the more thrill-seeking, vulgar, immoral or wicked the conduct—the more elaborate, fanciful and scientifically baseless the excuse-making. Continue reading →

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ENDNOTES, July 2019

Posted on July 11, 2019 by leslie

 

Amsterdam Concertgebouw

ENDNOTES, July 2019

A great conductor at 90, by Stuart Millson

A packed auditorium, whether in London, Amsterdam, Boston, Berlin or Chicago and sustained applause which continues for much longer than is usual – the chances are that the conductor is Bernard Haitink, the Dutch maestro who – this year, at the age of 90 – announced his retirement. A commanding, yet curiously self-effacing presence on the podium, Haitink began his career in 1954 in his native Holland, with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, studying and performing the essential core repertoire. Noted for his inspired and detailed performances, he soon approached the pinnacle position in his country’s musical life – the Concertgebouw, later, Royal Concertgebouw, whose role as principal conductor he held for nearly 30 years.

During these decades, thanks partly to an extensive and prominent recording schedule for the Philips label, the Concertgebouw became the natural rival to the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras; with Haitink setting down masterly interpretations of the Beethoven, Bruckner and Mahler symphonies – the two latter late-romantic composers becoming the figures with which the conductor would be so associated. In fact, Haitink contended that the musical world should place a limit on the number of Bruckner and Mahler performances – as the fashion for this repertoire, especially during the 1980s and 1990s, threatened to diminish its standing. Continue reading →

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Topsy-Turvy

Posted on July 10, 2019 by leslie

Sabine Devieilhe as Maria. Photo by Tristram Kenton

Topsy-Turvy 

Review of La Fille du Régiment, Opéra Comique in two acts, music by Gaetano Donizetti, libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges & Jean-François-Alfred Bayard, conducted by Evelino Pidò, directed by Laurent Pelly, fourth revival of the 2007 production, Royal Opera House, Monday 8th July 2019, reviewed by Leslie Jones

Exuberant conductor Evelino Pidò elicited a spirited performance of the compelling prelude to La Fille du Régiment from the orchestra of the Royal Opera House. It was a portent of the riches to come.

In comic opera or farce, we are a long way from verismo. As Zoë Anderson points out, “…we know how things are likely to go” and, “We recognise the characters as types…” (‘Don’t be a Duchess’, Official Programme). Marie, played with gusto by the feisty French soprano Sabine Devieilhe, is one such stock type, to wit, the mislaid baby, brought up in this case by soldiers. This lends itself to a classic opera device, the attempt to transform her into a lady via a music lesson. And to a trading riches for happiness trope. Marie’s mother, La Marquise de Berkenfeld (mezzo-soprano Enkelejda Shkoza), is also a stock type, “a grand dame with a past”. Essentially frivolous and egotistical, she turns out to be Marie’s mother, the product of an affair with Marie’s late father. Sulpice Pingot (baritone Pietro Spagnoli, heavily made up), the sergeant with a heart of gold who found Marie on a battlefield as a baby, is another recognisable archetype. Continue reading →

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Ivanka the Terrible, Part 2

Posted on July 9, 2019 by leslie

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump

Ivanka the Terrible, Part 2

by Ilana Mercer

It’s obvious who the odd one out was at the G20 Summit. Allow me to set the scene:

Two mature women are in the thick of a policy discussion. The two heavy hitters are British Prime Minister Theresa May and International Monetary Fund Director Christine Lagarde.

Their buttoned-up, officious attire fits the occasion. It’s how Theresa May and Christine Lagarde, both born in 1956, have always dressed. The pearls, the tweed and gingham suits: these are as old-school and as dear as Margaret Thatcher’s made-in-Britain, “ten-a-penny” “humble handbag.”

Whether you like their politics or you don’t—and I don’t—Theresa May and Christine Lagarde are sharpshooting, politically hefty women.

May graduated from Oxford, which has a “jealously-guarded admissions process.” In other words, May was not admitted to that elite school for being a woman, and she did not make her way in the word of politics because she was the daughter of a celebrity. Continue reading →

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Twitter Block

Posted on July 9, 2019 by leslie

Twitter Block

By Ilana Mercer

Twice have the censors at Twitter kicked me off their anything-but-neutral platform. When these arbiters of right and wrong periodically block my Twitter account, visitors to the site will be greeted with a stark warning:

“Caution. This account is temporary restricted.” The snowflakes will be forewarned of “some unusual activity on the account. Do you still want to view it?” Naturally, the worded choice offered—to view or not to view—ultimately doesn’t exist. I am told that when you click to avail yourself of the “choice,” my account is nowhere to be seen. Once blocked, you’re invisible.

When sent to the Twitter doghouse, one is typically barred from accessing Twitter at all, except for fleetingly seeing the notice, “Your account has been blocked.” Continue reading →

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