A Traditionalist Lesson For Laura Ingraham About Rap (Hint: It’s Not Music)

Art, Music, Objectivism, Pop-Culture, The West, The Zeitgeist

Is Laura Ingraham always a loud, boorish, boilerplate Republican?

I caught The Ingraham Angle last night, for the first time, and was appalled. First, Ms. Ingraham appeared a little loopy, as though she were, well, high.

The woman was loud, shouting over her guests in an unedifying manner, just because she could; just because she had the microphone. Not once did Ms. Ingraham puncture a Guest’s attempts to speak with meaningful argument, as the great Tucker Carlson does.

Tucker listens, he doesn’t talk over someone unless that someone is babbling. And Tucker, flaws and all (for he’s not pure Old Right, but he’s the best we have), is very sharp. He pierces a Guest’s case with good argument. (And his spontaneous laugh is adorable.)

Ms. Ingraham, on the other hand, is all wrong. Unconservative, unthinking, and yesterday, plain dopey, grinning inanely.

In particular, during the segment about rap lyrics, Ingraham declared, un-conservatively, that she loved all music. A serious conservative might have distinguished music (based on objective elements of composition) from rap.

And a methodical thinker—there are none on Fox News—would understand that while in older, contemporary American music, popular composers were smart enough to write gorgeous lyrics—lyrics are not music.

Put it this way, if the greatest composer ever, Johann Sebastian Bach, set his divine, godly cantatas to the naughty lyrics of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, would I decry these sublime compositions as immoral? Of course not. The music would still be sublime.

Rap is BAD, and not only because of the filthy lyrics. Rap, simply put, is not music.

Conservative emphasis on lyrics is confused. First, separate music from lyrics. Then, make the conservative case that you cannot endorse rap qua music, because it isn’t music. Rap might be street theater, but music it isn’t. Then, as a side issue, add that rap theater and dance is set to filthy grunts and coitus-like movements.

That’s my own traditionalist case against rap. Ms. Ingraham, on the other hand, is a multiculturalist who loves all “music,” including some rap. And being a broadminded broad, she errs in considering rap to be music.

Ethical Ignorance Guarantees Voters Won’t Detect Transgressions In Their Candidate Or Collect On Campaign Promises

Democracy, Donald Trump, Elections, Ethics, Intelligence, Morality, Reason

Republicans—blind followers of the Big Man—often lack even an elementary idea of what’s ethical and what’s not. Take the fact that former daytime talk show host Geraldo Rivera is a bosom buddy of Sean Hannity. The fact of the two’s friendship makes a mockery out of their canned TV “debates.” Differently put, it’s intellectually dishonest to rotate your friends on your opinion show. You shouldn’t hire your friends.

A talker should feature interesting, independent opinion and avoid in-house hires. You could say Geraldo Rivera is a Hannity friend with benefits. Responses to this no-brainer on social media tell me that people no longer grasp elementary ethics.

Ethical practices entail keeping your (journalistic) work and friendships APART—just as you should keep your wife out of the office of the president (Mugabe) and your kids out of the White House (Trump). Avoiding conflicts of interest, and the commitment to intellectual honesty implicit in your relationship with your audience (Hannity’s): These were once understood by people. I think the populace is too dumbed-down and consequently corrupted to have a feel for these finer points.

Certainly when it comes to their guy, Trump (or Bush) voters lack a basic sense of what’s ethical and what’s not. This ethical ignorance and hyper-partisanship guarantees voters will be powerless to detect transgressions in their candidate or collect on campaign promises.

Why The American Leaders Win, And The American People Lose

America, Donald Trump, Ethics, Family, Judaism & Jews, Politics, Republicans

Gen. John Kelly may have performed a most excellent maneuver. Perhaps his best, as a news headline blared: “White House Officials Discuss Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner Departing By 2018.”

This is terrific news for Deplorables, whether we want to admit it or not. The two New York liberals, a nepotistic addition to the administration, have been a disaster for the agenda which President Trump promised and for which we voted.

Alas, Deplorables, at least on social media, are blaming “dem Jews” for POTUS having largely abandoned his fundamental promise of America First (quit the denial). But Trump has clearly gone neoconservative to gain approval among “con-servatives,” which he’s getting galore. Deplorables aren’t being betrayed by Jews; but by Trump.

We Americans never hold leaders responsible for what they promise and what they fail to deliver. Instead, we retreat to our partisan corners and defend “our” guy (Bush/Trump), no matter what he does to us. He wins; we lose. ‘Tis the American way. The leaders win; the people lose. And everyone seems happy. Not I.

As I see it, a leader is nothing but a hired hand who must deliver on the contract, or else.

UPDATE II (3/7/021): Meghan Markle Against The Monarchy? Probably.

Britain, Celebrity, Feminism, Hollywood, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Racism, Reason

American actress Meghan Markle is sure to finish what Lady Diana almost accomplished: destroy the Monarchy. Markle is a divorced, left-liberal feminist out of Hollywood, which, you must agree, screams degeneracy.

Kate Middleton, aka The Duchess of Cambridge, is not only a gorgeous girl; but has turned out to be manifestly stabler than her late mother-in-law (which, I guess, is not saying much, considering that the dodo Diana was a manipulative neurotic, given to histrionics).

A harbinger of things to come, Harry: Markle dominated the little I saw of the couple’s interview.

UPDATE (12/4): Has poor Prince Harry seen this? Meghan Markle was a miserable, humorless, unoriginal scold at age 11, sharing same banal views of 99% of elite establishment.