Category Archives: The Zeitgeist

‘The Obamanation of Desolation’

Affirmative Action, America, Barack Obama, Christianity, Political Philosophy, Racism, The West, The Zeitgeist

A magnificent, crisply argued piece by the peerless Thomas Fleming, who happens to be a nimble stylist as well. Here are some highlights:

“The appearance of John McCain and Barack Obama at Saddleback, California’s ‘purpose-driven’ church marks the ultimate ascent of Rick Warren to the Gantry-in-Chief of the P.T. Barnum Church of America.”
“A liberal, as I never tire of quoting (from Robert Frost), is someone who would not take his own side in an argument. Rich liberals naturally support high taxes and extravagant government expenditures on the poor, preferably the undeserving poor. A male liberal—we can hardly call such creatures men—favors women’s rights; heterosexual liberals favor “Gay” “marriage,” and European-American liberals prefer all cultures to that of Europe. And, if these idiots condescend to note their skin color, they hate it or at least they think they do.”
“The DNC and the media can tell any lies they like, but they cannot change the fact that the Democratic presidential candidate hates Whites, including the members of his mother’s family who showed him every kindness. Compared with the average self-proclaimed white bigot who says he loves his ancestors, Obama is one sick and sorry excuse for a human being.”
“[Obama’s] claim to be a Christian is his best evidence that he was never a Muslim.”
[S]etting aside race-loyalty, greed, and the libido dominandi, how could anyone else hold his nose long enough to vote for anyone who talks in that smarmy adenoidal voice? When Obama gets on his pulpit, it sounds almost like he is swallowing his words in a sea of phlegm. He does not so much speak as (to quote what Alexander Wolcott once said of a theater audience) strum his catarrh. His self-righteous public persona should grate on the sensibilities of normal people–like nails on a chalkboard or the voice of Mariah Carey. And yet, some otherwise normal people voted for him in the primaries and will vote for him again in the general election. Why or rather how?”
[A]nyone will be better than Bush–is not an easy argument to refute—except in the case of Obama and McCain.
“However you describe Affirmative Action and minority set-asides, they represent a deliberate and systematic policy of discrimination against people like me in favor of people not like me simply because they are not like me. Such disgusting and immoral policies are worse than any form of racism I have encountered because they teach us to hate precisely those whom we are most supposed to love.”
“Bigotry these days has nothing to do with the way you treat people or even with what you actually say. Bigotry is what they say you are thinking when they play your speech backward at half speed.”
“[W]e should not make the mistake of blaming black people for the suicide we continue to inflict on ourselves. We white males are the problem, not blacks, women, homosexuals, or Mexicans. We–at least the liberal part of “we”– turned away from our religion and our civilization; we made war on property and marriage; we rejected Haydn and Sophocles in favor of John Cage and Kate Chopin. We have emasculated ourselves, pithed our brains, destroyed our vision and hearing, and now, all that is left, is to vote for a candidate whose rhetoric at least is telling us to fling our worthless carcasses off the cliff. I blush even to hint at this but John McCain is now the only alternative to suicide.”

Navel-Gazing Nation?

America, Journalism, Media, The Zeitgeist

The coverage of Tim Russert’s untimely death is obscene. Can you imagine the BBC lamenting for days on end the passing of one of their broadcasters, or even the head of the BBC network? Never. It would not happen. You’d hear a curt, solemn announcement to the effect that, “Our colleague has passed away tragically. We mourn his death and extend our condolences to his family. Now to the news of the day.”

This pathological coverage, once again, is of a piece with the childish, self-centered, deeply silly American media, which knows not what its proper mandate is. Has such impropriety afflicted the national psyche? You tell me. I suspect most Americans are preoccupied with other matters. I hope so.

Mature, normal people know when to grieve, how publically, how loudly, and how long. When the president of the US pauses, on an official visit abroad, to declare to the world how sad he is about the death of a man his audience doesn’t know—you know what a naval-gazing nation we’ve become.

This kind of coverage applies with spades to the elections: Since 2007, cable networks have focused exclusively on the elections to the exclusion of most other new and certainly world news.

As I asked in “Elections Fatigue”: “America’s pathological, election-time self-absorption makes a mockery of the idea that the US is suited to lead the world. Shouldn’t a world leader take an interest in the world?”

I suspect that Mr. Russert would have been appalled by the choice of broadcasting his colleagues have made.

Picking Friends: Liberty & Fraternity

Environmentalism & Animal Rights, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, The Zeitgeist

Certain litmus tests, I have found, are quite good in gauging people vis-à-vis liberty.

Homeschoolers are definitely non-statists and more likely to be friendly to freedom and politically incorrect.

Religious people too. The deeply religious are more likely to have a problem with the state than the irreligious. Faith and family have always been countervailing to the state.

Young men, and the odd woman, with a libertarian bent: If you’re looking for a partner or just a painless date, steer clear of a potential suitor if he or she drives a Toyota Prius, or any other Commie Car. A Prius driver is bound to be a real stinker.

Picking Friends: Liberty & Fraternity

Environmentalism & Animal Rights, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, The Zeitgeist

Certain litmus tests, I have found, are quite good in gauging people vis-à-vis liberty.

Homeschoolers are definitely non-statists and more likely to be friendly to freedom and politically incorrect.

Religious people too. The deeply religious are more likely to have a problem with the state than the irreligious. Faith and family have always been countervailing to the state.

Young men, and the odd woman, with a libertarian bent: If you’re looking for a partner or just a painless date, steer clear of a potential suitor if he or she drives a Toyota Prius, or any other Commie Car. A Prius driver is bound to be a real stinker.