Maria from Germany on X.
German, but very similar video to the Amelia videos. I wonder if it will catch on there.
I didn't know about the German outlaw Schinderhannes (Johannes Bückler).
Vengeance in Iran
A story out of Venezuela confirms that the US was assured of internal help to oust Maduro.
The question of the day is: who's playing that role in Iran? If you haven't noticed, we now have substantially more firepower in theater than we did before the Gulf War or the Iraq War. Iran also breaks the last link to the West and Africa for China's Belt and Road project -- the Russia-based one was cut by the Ukraine war -- just as Venezuela cut China's main cord to the Americas. I don't get the sense that most commentators understand this, but as crazy as this team is, they're rolling it all up.
The main reason we should do it is not global-strategic, though there are global-strategic reasons that might suffice independently. It's definitely in the US national interest. Also, it's personal. The President gave his word that he would protect the protesters, and Iran murdered them by the tens of thousands. There must be an accounting for that. The world we live in only respects strength and honor. If we don't keep our word we show neither.
Radicals in Virginia
Virginia is a pretty state; I lived there for two years in the early 2000s, and travel through there often. The Shenandoah region is full of busy little cities and long stretches of open road. If you have more time, the Blue Ridge Parkway stretches out of North Carolina into Virginia, formally terminating at the gates of the Shenandoah National Park but actually continuing through the park as the aptly-named Skyline Drive.
It is a shame to see what's happening there now that they have given the Democratic party full control over the state's mechanisms. I think it's striking that one of their 'day one' bills was to forbid election audits and hand-recounts of machine-counted ballots.
The blue cities keep pushing not just to consolidate their wealth and power, but to destroy the culture of the more traditional parts of the states they dominate. Every time they gain power, the cities press for abortion until the moment of birth (to include partial birth), DEI programs to re-educate the population (witness the day-one attacks on VMI), and of course the most expansive gun control they can squeeze through (in defiance of the Supreme Court as well as the state's traditional laws).
It's always sad to watch.
Physical Rhetoric
It's purely a demonstration for effect, but the results are clear enough. This kind of physical 'rhetoric' should put an end to some of the crazier verbal rhetoric, but it probably won't.
Threats & Lies
Two local newspapers, the Sylva Herald and Ruralite as well as the Smoky Mountain News, have jointly published an article in response to threats they have received. The threats cite other threats, in an ongoing controversy about whether -- I am not making this up -- the local public library should remain in its inter-county system or become independently managed by the county.
This is, in fact, the hottest political controversy in the county and has been for some time.
The anonymous email claims “these individuals encourage agitation and unprofessionally mock duly appointed FRL board members and elected county commissioners. Such unethical behavior seriously undermines the Sylva Herald’s credibility and opens this newspaper up to legal ramifications and public embarrassment.”
I do not share the opinion that mocking the duly elected county commissioners in any way damages one's credibility.
“YOU MUST CEASE publication of all falsehoods, slander, and spin,” the email continues without offering an example. “The Sylva Herald must CEASE ALL COLLUSION WITH EXTREMISTS. Period. Furthermore, Dave Russell and Beth Lawrence should resign immediately. Dave Russell doesn’t even live in Jackson County and regularly disregards objective truth while concealing facts. He has also been caught red handed by his own words making threats.”
The newspapers went ahead and published a list of the alleged extremists; I am sorry to report that I didn't make the cut. One who did is Antoinette MacWatt, the widow of a local Marine Corps veteran and a supporter of staying in the existing public library system -- obviously an extremist viewpoint, having a strong opinion about a public library.
“This is your only warning. We will not respond to you,” it reads. “Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
All I can figure is that the Republican side -- obviously aligned with the ones sending these anonymous emails -- has decided that the controversy is working for them in the local elections, or else has figured out some way to grift off control of the very limited budget associated with a local public library. If they've managed the latter they must be quite clever, a cleverness quite masked by their chosen mode of communications.
Chess is Haram?
Pretty much everything about Islam, that false religion built around a false prophet, is at least a little bit crazy. Mormonism is just that too, though, and nobody really gets upset about Mormons (more coffee for the rest of us). I knew that very good things like dogs and bacon and beer were haram ('forbidden'), but today is the first time that I've heard that chess is.
Apparently it mostly is, though there are some schools that consider it permissible as long as it doesn't cause you to gamble or miss prayers or anything like that. I suppose one could gamble on a chess game, although I have never heard of anyone doing so.
Don't get me wrong; I don't hate Muslims or Islam or anything like that. I've met some very good Muslims, some of whom even kept to these ideas about haram and halal at least for themselves (and for the most part). I don't have any problem with people living however they choose, as long as they don't try to coerce others into submission.
Chess, though? That seems like maybe the 'wise scholars' just weren't all that smart and got their feelings hurt. Chess is a great game, one that reliably rewards careful and deep thought.
Breaking Up NATO?
If Trump insists on acquiring Greenland regardless of Denmark, Europe, or the Greenlanders' desires, one possible outcome could be the end of NATO. Is that intentional on Trump's part? Is that part of what this is about?
Would getting the US out of NATO be a good thing for us? NATO has been such a fixture that I've never given it much thought. It could save us a lot of money, at least in the short term with base closures, withdrawing troops deployed to Europe, etc. Also, given most of Western Europe's insistence on being colonized by Islamist settlers, having lax immigration requirements for travelers and immigrants from Europe may well be a security risk. On the other hand, I've generally assumed that allies are helpful at least in intel sharing and that they maintain a certain stability that is good for us. Maybe I'm wrong, or maybe Trump doesn't care about that anymore.
I can see how NATO may have harmed Europe, allowing them to ignore their own defense and their own people and instead to go crazy with their globalist dreams, but I don't know that that's the case. It would seem to fit a common conservative critique of welfare undermining independence and work ethic, though.
What do y'all think? Is Trump trying to get us out of NATO? Would that be a good thing? Or am I just way off base with this?
The Schismatic Archbishop
Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, who has the Catholic Church's authority for the US military, has endorsed the disobeying of orders by soldiers whose conscience is offended.
We've talked about this periodically through the history of this blog, most recently when some Congresscritters decided to endorse the position. Sometimes it is morally proper to disobey orders, especially if those orders are shockingly immoral, this being the legal standard that came out of the My Lai massacre. Other times inferior officers give orders that are unconstitutional, which should be disobeyed because they are inherently mutinous.
Too, one of the ways in which Medieval political philosophy was superior to Modern political philosophy lies in the division of the temporal authority from the spiritual. You couldn't get to totalitarianism when the King and the Pope were competing sources of ultimate authority; both always had a claim on loyalty, and yet their interests differed sufficiently that even when they happened to align broadly there was a tension between them. Liberty finds its home in the tension between powers, which is why the American system of dividing powers between the branches of the Federal government and between the Federal government and the states has been so conducive to a life in which liberty remains possible.
Still, how surprising to see the Church come down on the side of defying authority. Well, in a way; in another way he is endorsing the sovereignty of the King of Denmark. He is, however, suggesting that Americans who have taken an oath of obedience to the President of the United States and the officers he appoints would be morally qualified to forswear that oath.
“Greenland is a territory of Denmark,” Broglio told the BBC Sunday. “It does not seem really reasonable that the United States would attack and occupy a friendly nation.”Asked whether he was “worried” about the military personnel in his pastoral care, Broglio replied: “I am obviously worried because they could be put in a situation where they’re being ordered to do something which is morally questionable.”“It would be very difficult for a soldier or a [M]arine or a sailor to by himself disobey an order,” he said. “But strictly speaking, he or she would be, within the realm of their own conscience, it would be morally acceptable to disobey that order, but that’s perhaps putting that individual in an untenable situation — and that’s my concern.”
It's perfectly tenable; I imagine they would be detained in Fort Leavenworth for some time, those two words sharing as their root the Latin tenere, "to hold." Holding the position would lead to one being held for having held the position. A soldier refusing orders because the sovereign of a different nation has a different opinion about the matter is not going to work out congenially, however.
Arms & the Protests
In this video, an angry screaming mob assaults a man and forces him to remove his shirt because it says the word "Freedom." A keffiyeh-wearing protester advises the man, "Take it off and you won't get hurt." The protesters here clearly feel empowered to engage in actual violence.
Other groups of protesters in Minnesota have begun bringing long guns to the protests. Notice that the hysteria is quite absent from these scenes: guns clarify the seriousness of the situation. There's no room for playing around. You're too close to the fire.
It's kind of an inversion of these few lines from Orthodoxy:
We might fancy some children playing on the flat grassy top of some tall island in the sea. So long as there was a wall round the cliff's edge they could fling themselves into every frantic game and make the place the noisiest of nurseries. But the walls were knocked down, leaving the naked peril of the precipice. They did not fall over; but when their friends returned to them they were all huddled in terror in the centre of the island; and their song had ceased.
All that wild misbehavior comes from a lack of fear of consequences. Their faces are covered; the governor is on their side; and no one at all is armed, least of all the victims. All those things are walls protecting them from the fall. Remove the walls, and the song shall cease.
Meanwhile, a commenter here notes the irony of a forthcoming arrest on MLK Day. That too is an interesting juxtaposition: his protests were both peaceful and polite, at least on the side of the protesting group. Likewise, Dr. King's protests were more effective.
In any case, that group of protesters is not likely to evade consequences. I certainly wouldn't want to have drawn the personal attention of Harmeet Dhillon as a prosecuting attorney. "Everyone in the protest community needs to know that the fullest force of the federal government is going to come down and prevent this from happening and put people away for a long time," she said. From what I have known of her, I expect she means it.
Amelia
If you haven't yet heard about Amelia, you might be surprised when you see her. She's a purple-haired, choker-wearing young woman who doesn't immediately strike me as someone who would be right-wing coded. Normally, if I saw someone with purple or blue hair, I might think they were left-wing coded; young women are notably more left-wing than other people; and a choker as a necklace tends to at least shade at lifestyles that are less than conservative-aligned. Nevertheless, when you encounter this cartoon you'll find that she is stridently right-wing.
This is apparently what soccer lovers call an 'own goal' by the UK government.
You can play the game she stars in here, if you like. It's ridiculous propaganda that deserves the outcome they are getting.
Oops!
UPDATE: Readily adaptable to many formats, it turns out. She can even be educational.
One of Ours, All of Yours
A corollary to the recent talk by the Secretary: what does this slogan mean?
Some of you may be aware of accusations that the phrase had Nazi origins; others may also know that this claim was widely rejected even by the mainstream media on research and reflection. All that is taken as read, but: what was it intended to mean?
The link above it doesn't help much: it leads to Homeland Security's "Worst of the Worst" page about criminal aliens, but it doesn't add any information or context for what is under discussion here.
It's a potentially powerful slogan if it means something, but in order to know what or whether it does we'd need to be clued in on some important matters. Who constitutes "ours"? Americans? DHS personnel? Some other group? Is it a warning to cartels not to target Homeland Security personnel? Is it a warning to protesters not to do so? Or does it intend some entirely different meaning?
Likewise, who constitutes "yours"? The aliens at the link don't seem to belong to any body that might be considered an organized group. Is it a threat targeting cartels? American protest groups? What is she talking about?
I'm not leveling any accusations except regarding the complete opacity of the attempted communication. You might think that, given how quickly opponents will rush to misconstrue Trump administration communications, some thought might be given to clarity of expression. Their opponents are going to construe the Betsy Ross flag as neo-Confederate, after all; but that one is clear and easily understood. Nobody is going to take that accusation seriously.
This, it's much harder to guess what they even meant to say. It's clearly a threat, but who is being threatened, and on whose behalf? I have no idea, only guesses about what might be intended.
Sarabande
I really like this Pentangle group from the Lai du Cor post below.
The most famous piece called "Sarabande" in the West is probably Händel's, although Bach did one as well.
The Western baroque forms are derivative of another form, the traditional zarabanda dance.
The Jesuit priest Juan de Mariana thought it indecent, describing it in his Tratato contra los juegos públicos (Treatise Against Public Amusements, 1609) as "a dance and song so loose in its words and so ugly in its motions that it is enough to excite bad emotions in even very decent people". A character in an entremés by Cervantes alluded to the dance's notoriety by saying that hell was its "birthplace and breeding place" (in Spanish: origen y principio).It was banned in Spain in 1583 but was nevertheless still performed and frequently cited in literature of the period (for instance, by Lope de Vega).
So in other words, a very good dance. Festive, one imagines.
Lai du Cor
AVI found a great song by a group I'd not heard of before. In the comments I mentioned the source for the magical horn that reveals false lovers: it's a pretty neat Anglo-Norman Arthurian poem called Lai du Cor from the 12th century. There's a summary of the tale and its lessons here.
It's not one of the better-known Arthurian stories in our time, but it was very popular in its day.
That’s Not How It Works, Kristi
Secretary Noem says that US citizens “ should be prepared to provide proof” of our citizenship.
First of all, we don’t even issue a “proof of citizenship” ID. The closest thing is a passport, which most Americans don’t have. If you’re in the Global Entry trusted travelers’ program, they issue an ID that mentions your citizenship too, but that’s by-the-way to the point of the program. Even fewer Americans are enrolled in that than are holders of passports.
Your driver’s license definitely avoids mentioning your citizenship. Real ID compliance means that it’s on file somewhere, but not in a way you can carry around with you. A voter registration card should be proof of citizenship, but we all know very well that it isn’t.
So is the idea that we should all be carrying notarized copies of our birth certificates everywhere? What is she even talking about?
Second, I’m old enough to remember when movies and television regularly featured police who demanded “your papers, please,” to people walking down the street. Sometimes these were East Germans; sometimes they were Soviets. Sometimes they were Nazis. In Casablanca, they were the police of occupied French territories collaborating with the Nazis.
What they never were was the good guys. Even as the bad guys, they never wore masks.
This isn’t how America works. However, how about a demonstration of American-ness in lieu of the nonexistent identification cards? I have a very clear idea of how an American would respond to such a demand. Nothing is more American than telling a government agent to stuff it and to mind their own business. Defiance of overreaching authority in the name of liberty should be sufficient evidence; if such a one isn’t an American, at least they have the right makings to be.
UPDATE: On demands for identification in general.
Propaganda
The Chinese probably intended this to look bad. The only weak thing in the video is the Chinese singing, though.
UPDATE: While there, I saw this clip about Greenland. (A bit of profanity, for those concerned.) An audience member claims about the prior sale of the American Virgin Islands that “there was a Trump back then too” who “used the same tactics.” That would be Woodrow Wilson.
Wilson was incredibly powerful during his tenure, having both Congress and the Supreme Court reliably on his side. This enabled numerous real abuses like the Sedition Act and the Espionage Act. However, I understand the sale of the Virgin Islands to have been something that the Danes themselves wanted to do. They wanted to unload them because they couldn’t afford them, and they were motivated to do it quickly, before America joined the war, to protect Danish neutrality. Motivated sellers often don’t get the best price.
Ruthless duty
Sigurd Yves Larsen, a longtime family friend from before my birth, a close friend of and professional collaborator with my father, has just died at the age of 92. He was born in Brussels in 1933. What I never knew until today is that when Germany invaded Belgium (he being then only 7 years old), his father left his wife and three young children in order to join the Resistance. For the rest of the war they had no idea if he was alive or dead. His wife set out on foot, with all three children, the youngest in a pram, to traverse the entirety of France and try to cross the border to Spain, only to be turned back. They spent the rest of the war in Belgium, then were reunited with the father in 1945. The whole family emigrated to Brazil, then soon to the United States. My father's friend became the head of the physics department at Temple University, and even after retiring, kept working on physics problems I'm told include second virial coefficients, gas thermodynamics, and few-body systems. He had been frail in recent years, but remained in reasonable health until a mercifully brief final illness in the last couple of weeks.His family journey through France on foot was no isolated case; millions of people were on the road, facing bombs and strafing by the Germans. Per a combination of Grok and Wikipedia: the mass exodus of civilians during the German invasion of Western Europe in May-June 1940, known as "L'Exode" in French history, involved an estimated 6-10 million people fleeing southward from Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and northern France as the Wehrmacht advanced. This included nearly two million Belgians who crossed into France within days of the May 10 invasion, driven by panic and memories of World War I atrocities, creating overcrowded roads clogged with families on foot, bicycles, horse-drawn carts, and occasional vehicles—all moving amid military traffic heading in the opposite direction.
German Luftwaffe aircraft, particularly the infamous Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers, frequently targeted these refugee columns to sow terror and disrupt Allied movements. Stukas would dive steeply with wailing sirens to strafe and bomb the slow-moving crowds, causing widespread casualties and forcing people to dodge attacks while hiking among thousands. These assaults were tactical, exploiting the vulnerability of mixed civilian-military convoys to create blockages and panic.As impressed as I am by his courage and dutifulness in joining the Resistance, it seems unimaginably harsh for him to leave his family in the circumstances, especially considering that one of his wife's grandparents was Jewish. Still, when men have to go war, they have to go to war.
Home on the Range
This story out of Wyoming reminds me that when I was a kid we had a guy who would ride his horse to the VA (which was the only place you could get a drink, it being a private club in a dry county). The deputies all knew he was coming home drunk, but the horse knew the way and got him home reliably. He was just accepted as one of the local characters. I don’t know if he was a WWII or Korean War veteran; I was just a child, but I remember dad laughing about it with the other firefighters.
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