Silent movies are to movies in toto as classical Greek and Roman drama is to all of European drama. Of course, cinema is one of the latest progeny of the classical dramatic tradition, so one can’t claim the silents invented any wheels in terms of plot and characterization; those haven’t changed since Euripides and Menander....
Year: 2014
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Ready, Aim, Fire: Men, Marksmanship, and Public Urinals
American boys and men have always taken great pride in hitting targets. Whether that target was a bulls-eye during an archery class at summer camp or a catcher’s mitt in high school baseball, we applaud those who possess the ability to strike a target. The first act of an eleven year old given a BB...
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The Gentile Church IV: The Apostolic Church
Following the Master’s instructions, about 120 of Jesus’ followers gathered in Jerusalem under the leadership of Peter. The first order of business was the selection of a replacement for Judas. The method adopted shows us something of the way the Church will operate: The Apostles themselves choose the most worthy candidates and then leave the...
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Putin’s Friends in Ukraine
The most important borders for Americans to worry about are our own. But the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 has certainly shifted media attention from the crisis on our southern border to the borders of Ukraine. Although we do not know with certainty, it appears likely that pro-Russian rebels were the ones who shot...
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The Gentile Church, III: The Galileans
The early Church faced many grave crises and challenges, many of which can be summed up in one question: What kind of Church was it to be? In an important sense, this question was whether it was to be a Judeo-Christian Church limited to Jews, including Gentile converts to Judaism, or a Christian Church liberated...
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The Brazil of North America
To observe the decades-long paralysis of America’s political elite in controlling her borders calls to mind the insight of James Burnham in 1964—”Liberalism is the ideology of Western suicide.” What the ex-Trotskyite turned Cold Warrior meant was that by faithfully following the tenets of liberalism, the West would embrace suicidal policies that would bring about...
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A False Flag, or Fog of War over Ukraine?
A Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 bound for Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam was shot down in eastern Ukraine Thursday afternoon, killing all 298 passengers and crew. It was hit as it cruised at 33,000 feet above the war-ravaged Donetsk Oblast, 35 miles west from the Russian border. The airliner’s demise has the potential to escalate the...
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Florence
We arrived to Florence on early Monday afternoon and stayed till about 12 pm today. The city of Dante was an unforgettable experience, the crowds of Chinese tourists notwithstanding. (There were so many of them in Florence, that in a few years the Florentines will say “Chao” instead of “Ciao”). We stayed at a charming...
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Does Putin Have a Strategy? (III)
According to the latest opinion poll, published on July 16, President Putin’s approval rating among different segments of Russia’s electorate has risen to an unprecedented 66 percent. This may change quickly, however, if he comes to be perceived as weak and indecisive in handling the next stage of the Ukrainian crisis – the one that...
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Dateline Lilliput
Russia’s parliament – called the “Duma” in homage to parliamentary democracy under the Romanovs, an echo as incongruous in its own way as the hearkening of America’s deliberative assembly to the Senate of ancient Rome – is, of course, a misnomer. In fact, the body in question owes nothing to its imperial predecessor and everything...
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A Preventable Crisis
Last week, there was much talk of a crisis at the border with Mexico, prompted by a surge of Central American teenagers trying to get into the United States. President Obama asked Congress for $3.7 billion to deal with this influx, with the largest single appropriation, $1.8 billion, to go to the Department of Health...
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Bergamo
On Sunday, we went to Bergamo – north Italy’s hidden jewel and one of the prettiest places I have ever been to. Having been advised to visit it by both Dr. Fleming and Dr. Trifkovic, I spent some time convincing my reluctant better half to go there instead of Lugano, Switzerland. We set out from...
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The Gentile Church Act II: An Excursus
To understand how the Church disentangled itself from Judaism, it is necessary to know a little bit about what the term “Jew” means. Modern Christians often seem to think that all the Old Testament patriarchs are Jews, though Adam and Abraham are obviously the ancestors of many nations. The “children of Israel” are, in tradition,...
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Does Putin Have a Strategy? (II)
It’s been over two months since I first asked this question in the aftermath of the Odessa massacre. The situation has further deteriorated since that time. The Kiev forces, spearheaded by the Right Sector-dominated “National Guard,” have turned much of Slavyansk into rubble. As a massive wave of refugees from eastern Ukraine enters Russia, their...
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Venice
Saturday, we went on a day trip to Venice (I could hear Andrei Navrozov chuckling all the way from Sicily). Truth be told, I was very hesitant to go to Venice this time of the year after being advised of its oversaturation by tourist hordes, but not knowing when I will be in Italy next...
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Milan, Part II
Today, was certainly a more relaxed day here in the city of St. Ambrose and Silvio Berlusconi. After getting acquainted with the tram routes (Milan’s subways are few and far in between), we got off at the Duomo square. (I must say, my original favorable impression was somewhat spoiled last night, when we, along with...
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Italy Travelogue, I: Milan
Arrived today on a direct flight from JFK airport for the first stop in my Italian vacation: Milan. Famous more for its soccer teams and companies than for historic sites, Milan is a convenient first stop because of the abundance of cheap flights from America. After taking an express, lighting-fast train from Malpensa airport to...
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Thistles from Figs
“Since there has never been a great civilization without poetry,” writes Tom Fleming in the current issue of Chronicles, “we can say that European civilization has ceased to exist.” True enough, but if the day’s newspaper is any guide, I reckon the sainted editor is digging too deep. The English word “uxurious” was used, and...
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Weasel Words
Dr. Fleming, Mr. Cadfael, and now Mr. Navrozov in recent posts have opened a fruitful discussion of the American tendency to debase the language with prettified terms in order to disguise reality and enforce conformity of thought. Actually this is nothing new and is in part a product of what our two most penetrating foreign...
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Scare Quotes
A tactic the left uses to inspire loathing for conservatives is repeating something a conservative or even nominal Republican says, and then slapping scare quotes around it. That supposedly shows that whatever the conservative said is self-evidently false, and worse, “hateful.” It might run something like this: “Tea Party Senator says ‘Earth revolves around Sun.’”...
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The Gentile Church, Act I
The Prefect was in a difficult spot. As an honest Roman official, he knew better than to get mixed up in the turbulent local politics. The local religious establishment wanted a rebel to be executed. They said the rebel claimed to be ruler of the Roman Empire, a pathetic but direct challenge to the authority...
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Will there be an Independence Day 2015?
As Independence Day 2014 approaches, I’m still wondering when one of the Republican presidential candidates is going to seize the immigration issue and march to victory in the White House. That’s assuming there will even be an independent United States in 2015. Or if the country exists, that it will be anything but a totalitarian...
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Montenegrin Church Fresco: Tito in Hell
The old Serbian joke goes like this. An elderly Serb peasant invites his friends over for some drinks and they notice that the crucifix on the wall of his hut is positioned between two portraits: one of Stalin and the other of Tito. When his buddies express their surprise, bordering on outrage, the peasant responds:...
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Freedom’s Holocaust
An extensive survey last year by the pollster YouGov found that “21 percent of U.S. citizens believe that human beings evolved from less advanced life forms over millions of years, and God did not directly guide this process.” That’s 1 in 5, a minority more marginal – to choose a random example – than the...
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Problems in Democracy 01
The House Ethics Committee has changed reporting requirements for members who receive free travel from a variety of groups. The travel will still be reported but only on the House Clerk’s website, making it less likely for watchdog groups—aka paid snoops—and journalists—aka professional liars—to keep track of their indubitably corrupt activities. To answer Nancy Pelosi’s...
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A Young Attorney’s Lament: Law School
Attorneys love to talk. They are addicted to argument, storytelling, reminiscing. The latter is especially true, both of weathered courtroom veterans, with their salt-and-pepper beards and passé suits, and of eager novices with their bright paisley ties and the slightest hint of gray around the temples. Whether in pages of autobiographical books or over a...
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Many Tiers
R. Clay Reynolds’ “From Castro to Cancun” (Correspondence, May) presented a number of observations that contradict much of what has been documented with regards to Cuba. For the sake of brevity, I am only highlighting some of the most glaring. First, the claim that there is “no urban blight” in Cuba ignores the crumbling reality. ...
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Let Us Pray (But to Whom?)
In May, the Supreme Court held that the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause is not offended when a city council opens its meetings with a short prayer (Town of Greece v. Galloway). While this result seems to be an example of commonsense constitutionalism, conservatives should not be too quick to pat the Court on the back. ...
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Jimmy Rowles
In person, jazz pianist Jimmy Rowles was a cutup, a card, a madcap presence, a piece of work. After coming east from California in 1973, he would appear often, sometimes for weeks at a time, at Bradley’s, The Cookery, The Knickerbocker, Michael’s Pub, and other top New York City piano rooms, usually in duos with...
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The Wasted Century
The Great War and its inevitable successor have been called Europe’s civil war, and there is some truth in this characterization. Divided by language, religion, and culture, the nations of Europe were nonetheless united in a common civilization that developed out of the ruins of the Christianized Roman Empire. Despite the strains brought on by...
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Intransigent Diplomacy
There is a disturbing pattern over the decades in Washington’s negotiations with countries deemed to be adversaries. It is a tendency to adopt a rigid stance marked by unrealistic demands that make achieving a settlement virtually impossible. Often, harsh economic sanctions against the target country reinforce the provocative diplomatic posture. Most recently, that conduct has...
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Imperial Solution
I write this while American unmanned flights and 18 American “specialists” are looking for those 200 unfortunate girls abducted by Boko Haram, a group our very own Hillary Clinton had refused to place on the State Department’s terrorist watch list. Boko Haram is as bad as it gets and as violent as can be, but...
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A Big Deal
“This is the biggest contract in the history of the gas sector of the former USSR,” Vladimir Putin said after the $400 billion agreement to supply Russian natural gas to China was signed in Shanghai on May 21. It is much more than that, Putin went on: It is an “epochal event.” China’s President Xi...
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The Long Sadness
William Ball was just shy of 19 and living in the town of Souris on the prairies of Canada when war erupted in Europe in August 1914. The region was still something of a frontier, devoted to trapping and trading with Indians, and inhabited by hearty, adventurous types, Ball among them. On a bet, he...
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A Chestertonian Assault
I begin with a confession. Whenever I receive a new number of The Chesterton Review, I groan inwardly and, from time to time, outwardly. Let me hasten to add that said groan is not a sign of tedium or disappointment—far from it. But opening those pages means that once again, despite myself, I will be...
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Soccer Wars: 2014 Edition
Pace my colleague Eugene Girin, I stand with Ann—and with Tom Piatak and with Aaron D. Wolf, who have fought for American sporting sanity for years. We were country when country wasn’t cool. For years, we have resisted the foreign invasion that is soccer, unmasking the imposition of the “beautiful game” for what it is: an...
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Unfair Play
A few months ago I found myself stranded in Piccadilly. There was a parade of women—of a decidedly Sapphic cast, I thought—carrying placards with slogans that admonished men for their proclivity to rape, violence, and pillage. Most prominent was a sign that read “No Means No,” its message being, supposedly, that when a woman refuses...
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Free Spirit of Literature
Sam Pickering (born 1941) recently retired from professing English—mostly, it would appear, creative writing. Oh! “Beware! Beware! . . . Weave a circle round him thrice / . . . / For he on honey-dew hath fed / and drunk the milk of paradise.” If Coleridge had not crafted his magical lines for a figure...
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Mr. Kennan’s America
No admirer of George F. Kennan’s should be surprised by the angry tone of the reviews his recently published Diaries has been receiving. Of the several I have read, in the British as well as the American press, all were, to some extent or another, willfully unsympathetic. That is only to have been expected, Kennan...
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World War I and the Modern West
History may be a series of more or less contingent events, whose only connection to the preceding or following ones is that men react to what others do. Such events are basically disjointed because each one depends on the more or less unpredictable behavior of those men who are able to attract enough followers to...
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True Tar-Heel Tales
Abe Lincoln and Al Capone Sometimes “Uncle” Bud disappears for a week or two on “fishing trips.” He always has a nice car for trips, usually a Buick with a big trunk. Pays cash for ’em, too. Always says he got the money from cashing in his “G.I. insurance.” Less said about that the better. ...
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Why Ann Coulter Is Dead Wrong About Soccer
Ann Coulter’s recent article “America’s Favorite National Pastime: Hating Soccer” is two things. First, it is an example of that shrill uncouthness that Europeans like to attribute to Americans, an obnoxious boorishness that is typical behavior for those jerks, which are the subject of Dr. Fleming’s numerous articles. Second, it is an exaggerated illustration of...
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Between Hate and Love
Blue Ruin Produced by The Lab of Madness Written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier Distributed by RADiUS-TWC Hateship Loveship Produced by The Film Community Directed by Liza Johnson Written by Mark Poirier from Alice Munro’s story Distributed by IFC Films Revenge, we’re told, is a dish best served cold. But is this true? Director Jeremy...
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How Not to Succeed in Washington
When I was younger and precociously interested in politics (I subscribed to National Review and looked forward to Firing Line every Sunday), I knew who George Kennan was. He was the brilliant author of the Containment Doctrine who had later gone soft on communism and become a liberal. If someone had told me, “No, it...
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A Necessary Book
We have been enduring the cultural revolution of liberal modernity. It is hard to say exactly when that revolution began, but it took a great step forward in the 60’s, when social and religious tradition lost its last shreds of public authority, and another after the collapse of communism freed it to go wherever it...
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Mencken and the World Warmonger
As World War I is remembered in this year of its hundredth anniversary, one rivalry continues to resonate across America. It isn’t between the Allies and the Central Powers, or between two houses of European royalty, but between two countrymen: President Woodrow Wilson and H.L. Mencken, the Bad Boy of Baltimore. Despite a couple of...
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His Land, His People
“Dickinson was, in truth,” writes William Murchison, as much philosopher as writer, a man to whom God had imparted the gifts not merely of expression but also of examination and reflection. Among the large fraternity active in the cause of independence, he gave place, intellectually, to no one. That being indisputably the case, Dickinson’s inclusion...
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Is There Hope?
Think of what we’re trying to do: upend the biggest, deadliest, most intractable apparatus of power this world has ever seen. The sheer scope of the Leviathan State is so daunting that any patriot who seeks to take it on is immediately faced with the enormity of his task—and that is sure to overwhelm even...
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Tell the Imperial President: No More Wars!
Barack Obama has asked Congress for $500 million to train and arm rebels of the Free Syrian Army who seek to overthrow the government. Before Congress takes up his proposal, both houses should demand that Obama explain exactly where he gets the constitutional authority to plunge us into what the president himself calls “somebody else’s...
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