Everybody Needs Somebody

Seven Books Every Conservative Should Read

Matthew Continetti, editor in chief of the Washington Free Beacon and regular contributor to the Weekly Standard, discusses other famous Conservatives' reading suggestions and then gives us his own list. It looks pretty interesting. I've ordered Modern Times and put the rest on my Amazon wish list.

Alas, with classes starting up next Monday, I will have very little time to read things I choose.

Why Beauty Matters

An hour with philosopher Sir Roger Scruton

Shamelessly stolen from Maggie's Farm.

Update: I don't remember running across him before, but from the Wikipedia entry about him and his website, he would appear to be one of Britain's foremost Conservative philosophers. During the Cold War, he helped establish "underground universities and academic networks" behind the Iron Curtain.

Go, Mighty Bulldogs

You may have seen the graph showing that Texas has won as many medals as some nations. Did you know that the University of Georgia has won as many as Brazil?

Circles

"He is Conan, Cimmerian. He Won't Cry. So I Cry For Him."

I also detailed this duty. I find I can't. It is not for lack of love. Love is just channeled into duty, and so it is in the things done that I express my sense of loss. I have come to know that a very great deal was lost. So many have come to tell me, and to ask to help in ways they cannot. I have a list I am building of people who want to come to the funeral. We weren't even going to have one. Dad hated them. Now it looks like we will have a funeral with military and Fire Department honors, because it answers a demand.

The Fire Department stripped the flags from their stations, the police stopped traffic on all the streets, and the Firemen lined the streets with their trucks when they moved his body to the funeral home. No one asked them to do this. They needed to do it.

Such was my father.

New vistas in architecture

I love it when Bird Dog goes on vacation and lets Roger de Hautville post for him.  One of today's excellent links is Ugly Belgian Houses, and as Roger says, Boy. Howdy.

"It's ugly house mating season"

Monday Night Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats

Off Station for the Week

I want to thank you all for your condolences, as well as for the congratulations on the birth of my niece. I will be spending the week with my mother to help her get through all the many details that come with ending a 49 year partnership with another human being. In addition to mourning, as all of you know who have done it, there is a lot of paperwork, a lot of stuff to untangle, and of course personal effects to deal with.

On Saturday, however, I'm putting her on a plane to meet her new grandbaby. I'll be with her until I send her through security at the airport, and family will pick her up on the other side.

Fire and Deep Water

Today, I am an uncle. My sister gave birth to a baby girl. Mother and child are well.

Also today, my father died.

Trump vs. Chavez

As Venezuela enters its end-game, the news reports seem strangely unable to diagnose its problem.  Could it be, for instance, that the country's destruction resulted from electing leaders with the wrong personality?  That didn't help, I'm sure, but as this author points out,

Look, I’m as scared of a Trump presidency as any reasonably sane center-right pro-democracy millennial. But Trump is not surrounded by a loony team of Marxist advisors hellbent on destroying the economy for the sake of denying that there is such a thing as a market.

In the meantime, I'm still not sure what the final cataclysm will look like, but Venezuelans already are beginning to eat their cats, dogs, pigeons, and zoo animals--those that haven't starved first.

72 Killed Resisting Gun Confiscation in Boston

True story.

Free Fire Zone

Uncle J and Kurt Schlichter cut loose, on a topic we've just been discussing here.



I mean really, really loose.

Kim Rhode: One of Us

She may tomorrow become the first woman to win six straight medals in an Olympic sport. Today, she's a spokesman for us.

Yet Rhode, who is funny and personable in conversation, doesn’t resort to typical athlete dodges when talk turns to gun control. “We should have the right to keep and bear arms, to protect ourselves and our family,” she says. “The second amendment was put in there not just so we can go shoot skeet or go shoot trap. It was put in so we could defend our first amendment, the freedom of speech, and also to defend ourselves against our own government.”

It’s a view Rhode plans to pass down her three-year-old son as he grows up. “I hope to have him out there shooting, when he becomes of age,” she says. “I started when I was like 7 or 8 years old, and it was something that was a big deal in my family, to gain that right of passage.”

I Believe I've Heard This Song Before

CENTCOM’s intelligence analysts already are concerned that the DoD IG report will not have as much teeth as the House Republican task force report. These military analysts told The Beast that the head of CENTCOM’s intelligence directorate, Maj. Gen. Steven Grove, and his civilian deputy, Gregory Ryckman, had deleted emails and files from computer systems before the inspector general could examine them.

I'm sure the servers won't be "cleaned in a manner designed to prevent complete forensic recovery." I mean, what are the chances of that?

"Not-So-Dark Ages"

The excavation of that Arthurian site at Tintagel reveals luxury goods, National Geographic reports.

Although only a few trenches in undisturbed areas of the site were excavated this summer, they exposed massive rock walls—some more than 3.3 feet (one meter) thick—that are the most substantial structures known from the period. Hundreds of small finds provide more evidence for imported luxury goods transported from the sunny shores of the Eastern Roman Empire to this blustery British outcrop.

Jesus, Outlaw?

The Art of Manliness is doing a series of interesting articles exploring masculinity and Christianity. I didn't plan to post here about it until I read the following paragraph:

In fact, during [Jesus's] life critics called him a lestes — a word that meant an insurrectionist, rebel, pirate, bandit. Though the label was often associated with violent thievery, Jesus practiced what anthropologists call “social banditry” — groups of men operating on the margins of society who refuse to submit to the control and value system of the ruling elite, and who fight for the justice, independence, and emancipation of the common people. While the existing power structure considers them criminals, the exploited see these outlaws as their champions.

That sounds familiar. Given his peripatetic life, I can easily imagine Jesus and the apostles riding down the road on motorcycles.

The Only Thing That Keeps Me Hanging On

In these dark and foreboding times ...

A good pairing is Tincup, an American whiskey out of the Rocky Mountains. The flavor is sharp and spicy, like a bourbon and rye blend, and it comes with its own tin cup.

Olympics Update

Things are still going well.

That was 2012. This year, we're beating the crap out of everyone and capturing an asteroid.

Olympic Jousting?

If English Heritage has its way ...

Updated with videos!

Also, this might come in handy soon.

And, I'll move my drink pairing up from the comments: I actually have little idea what jousters drank, so I'll pair it with a drink from Merry Olde England, Samuel Smith's "Oatmeal Stout." With the brewery only founded in 1758, it's unlikely to have been part of a tournament champions celebration, but some horse cavalry might have enjoyed it. Should stand up well for sieges, too.

Update 2: Grim brings us up to speed on jousting beers and suggests a hoppy lager. None actually spring to mind. I'll have to go looking for one.

Also, check out these Shire horses Samuel Smith's uses for deliveries. Beautiful.