Jonathan Meades Is Ever So Convincing; Much More Than Brutalism

Aesthetics, Art, Britain, Intellectualism, Socialism, The State

The little I know about Brutalist architecture is enough to make me skeptical of Jonathan Meades’ brilliantly spoken claims for it. This school of architecture seems to have been wedded to The State and, as such, to have taken on its foreboding austerity (expensive and ugly). “Governmentally sanctioned Brutalims” is indeed “the architecture of “cultural welfarism.” But a government-spawned “novelty”? Please!

However, Meades, a Briton of course, is a magnificent advocate for anything, really. His polemics are astounding in both beauty and internal logic. “… a prose style so pugnaciously cultivated, so unpredictably informative, and, enviably often, so extremely funny. …” Meades is indeed a strange experience: You might not agree with his assessment, but you love every moment of it and follow in delight.

On the 1960s cultural output: “A kaleidoscope of polychromatic vacuity.” “Enjoyably witless hedonism.” “A gluppy soap of mysticism …” “New universities busily inventing new disciplines.” Vatican Two decreeing that new churches should be churches in the round, like theaters in the round.”

Bunkers Brutalism and Bloodymindedness Concrete Poetry – Two from MeadesShrine on Vimeo.

*Image courtesy By Aurelien Guichard from London, United Kingdom – National Theatre Uploaded by BaldBoris, CC BY-SA 2.0

‘Gun Violence’? No! Goon Violence

Crime, GUNS, Reason

Thinking logically about crime is far likelier to lead to solutions than irrational, mythical thinking. This morning, CNN’s Poppy Harlow—below an amusing thought I once entertained about her—inveighed against the “gun violence” that “took” the life of poor Deputy Darren Goforth, today.

“Gun Violence”? No! Goon violence. A very dark man—safe to say black, from the images—has been taken into custody for the execution-style murder of the deputy, at “a suburban Houston gas station.”

Police have described the suspect as a male with a dark complexion, about 5-foot-10 to 6 feet tall, wearing a white T-shirt and red shorts. Authorities did not say what race they believe him to be. …

It was not an inanimate object that murdered this innocent individual, but a malevolent man with murder in his heart and a weapon in his hand. Grasping that distinction is more truthful and hence more productive than blaming an inanimate object.

Poppy bonus:

If only a woman with the wicked wit of a Margot Asquith—countess of Oxford, author and socialite (1864- 1945)—were around to put slobbering Poppy Harlow in her proper place.

When asked by American actress Jean Harlow how she pronounces her first name, Mrs. Asquith quickly retorted: “The ‘t’ is silent, as in Harlow.”

From “Savoring Hillary’s Vow Of Silence.”

Bush, Obama And Hillary Destabilized The … World

Britain, Europe, Foreign Policy, IMMIGRATION

“When they destabilized Libya and overthrew strongman Muammar Gadhafi in 2011, the U.S. and its Canadian and European allies unleashed a series of events that accounts for the steady flood into Europe of migrants from North Africa.” (From “The Curse Of Col. Gadhafi.”)

The leveling of Libya courtesy of Barack Obama’s Amazon women warriors—Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice and Samantha Power—is one source of destabilization. Another is the destruction of Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan:

“A large majority of people undertaking these arduous and dangerous journeys are refugees fleeing from places such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan,” confirmed UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. You know who finished those countries off: George W. Bush. He is responsible for interventions that rippled into Syria and now Europe; it is being flooded by migrants from the Middle East and North Africa.

Those who make it across the Mediterranean and wash up on southern Italy’s shores, then proceed inland. Some are clamoring to cross the channel into United Kingdom, via the Channel Tunnel. It is a “Camp of the Saints” scenario—“the 1973 novel by French author Jean Raspail envisioning an apocalyptic ‘invasion’ of Europe by successive boatloads of Third World nationals.”

Between them, Bush, Obama and Clinton destabilized the … world

Megyn Kelly ‘Misses’ Trump’s Reaganesque Mic Moment

Elections, Ethics, Etiquette, IMMIGRATION, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Media, Multiculturalism

The story of “Megyn, Jorge, and a Reaganesque Trump” is on The Unz Review, America’s smartest webzine. An excerpt:

Donald Trump’s brusque, plainspoken manner masks a fierce intelligence that should not be underestimated. Myself, I had experienced a momentary lapse in judgment with respect to the quality of Fox News Channel’s journalism, during the first primetime Republican debate, in Cleveland, Ohio. Trump, on the other hand, was never blindsided by the nicely-packaged production that is Megyn Kelly. Kelly, in his plain and simple estimation, “was just not very good or professional.”

Indeed, since returning from her post-spat “vacation,” Kelly’s Trump-free broadcasts have been flat. “Off her game,” Trump tweeted out, right away. And while the celebrity anchor is still drawing ratings, this cannot last, absent the biggest news item: Donald Trump. I expected the anchor to come to her senses, and start working hard to get newsmaker Trump back on The Kelly File. This has yet to transpire.

Kelly’s most recent belly flop came while “interviewing” Jorge Ramos, another celebrity newscaster who has been on the receiving end of Trump’s much-needed, manly ministrations.

Ramos works for the Univision network, catering to Hispanics. Although he poses as a reporter, in reality, Ramos is an identity politics activist. This celebrated mediocrity—Ramos made it as one of Time’s “Most Influential People”—crashed a Trump event, held on Tuesday, in Dubuque, Iowa. It was plain that the “ethnic activist” had materialized not to ask Trump a question; but to protest the candidate’s positions and read him the riot act (in a kind of Pidgin English).

Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders was chased off a Seattle stage by two militant, “Black Lives Matter” movementarians. Ramos, the head honcho of the more-powerful, “Hispanic Lives Matter (Only)” movement, was staging a similar performance, this time against Trump.

And Trump was having none of it.

As is his wont, Ramos began, Trump explained, “ranting and raving and screaming, like a madman, and honestly being very disrespectful to all the other reporters.” I watched the Ramos rant on CNN. (FNC’s ratings are fated to fall, if the network fails to carry future Trump events.) Trump’s gloriously funny description was also factual.

Whereas Kelly began her “Breaking Tonight” segment—what’s that all about?—by “informing” her viewers that Ramos had been booted from the Trump news conference; hers was only half the truth.

And half-truths in journalism help perpetuate wholesale lies. …

Read the rest. “Megyn, Jorge, and a Reaganesque Trump” is on The Unz Review, America’s smartest webzine.