Archive for the ‘culture’ Category

Britain throws The Two Greatest Gifts to Mankind Away

Posted: August 10, 2024 by datechguy in culture, internet/free speech
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The nations, not so blest as thee,
Must, in their turns, to tyrants fall;
While thou shalt flourish great and free,
The dread and envy of them all

."Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
"Britons never will be slaves."

Rule Britannia! 1740

I have often argued that the two greatest social developments in the history of mankind for the cause of good are

  1. Christianity
  2. British Common Law

The first Christianity establishes the idea that all people are equal in the sight of God:

Men, women, slaves, freemen, Jews, Greeks, rich, poor (to use the phrases of scripture) all are God children and thus due the respect of such.

Even if you don’t believe in Christ, that idea was about as radical as you can get in the 1st century. And it is from that idea that the rights of man evolved.

The second British common law built on both the concepts of Christianity and the rights granted by Magna Carta. Again this was revolutionary.

From this grew the concept that if men were equal before God they should also be equal before the law. It was the idea that the law applied to the great as well as the common, the powerful as well as the powerless and that judgement would not come in a summary manner.

It was this idea spread by the Brits going around the world that made possible those in the world who would eventually leave the empire they would build, because they would be educated in this law and then insist that said ideas be applied where they were.

Now I don’t claim for a moment that these concepts were always applied by imperfect humans nor to I claim that there were not those who tried to use them for their own advantages. If you want perfection you’ll have to wait for heaven. Suffice to say that those who would use such things for advantage would have had no problem using other systems the same way, systems that didn’t provide legal or social restraint to their goals.

These things changed the world for the better.

That’s what makes Britain’s situation today really sad and completely predictable.

Once the British started rejecting Christianity, equality before God, it became easy to reject equality before the law. The seeds laid by Henry VIII finally bloomed at the 1930 Lambeth Conference and have now spread and taken solid root to the point where Englishmen don’t have confidence in their own culture and are now ironically being colonized by a people who DO have confidence in both their laws and religion which proclaim them superior.

Thus if all men are not equal in the eyes of God why would they be equal before the law so why should British police or members of the British government risk their single life and limb with no reward to follow to enforce the laws of those who might harm them if they do or protect the rights of those who can not?

And of course nobody can be allowed to speak aloud this shameful change, they must all be silent less their true state be known and the newly minted slaves become aware of their chains.

So much for “Britons never never never shall be slaves”

How foolish, how sad and how utterly predictable.

Russia, Britain and the Left: “Institutional lying”

Posted: August 9, 2024 by datechguy in culture, internet/free speech, Uncomfortable Truths
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Consider too what undesirable deaths occur in wartime. Men are killed in places where they knew they might be killed and to which they go, if they are at all of the Enemy’s party, prepared. How much better for us if all humans died in costly nursing homes amid doctors who lie, nurses who lie, friends who lie, as we have trained them, promising life to the dying, encouraging the belief that sickness excuses every indulgence, and even, if our workers know their job, withholding all suggestion of a priest lest it should betray to the sick man his true condition! 

C. S. Lewis The Screwtape Letters #5 1941

The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself

St. Augustine of Hippo

I noted yesterday that there was very little reporting on the Ukrainian incursion into Russia but Redstate has a pretty informative article:

The Two big developments:

That means troops to the south don’t get resupplied and in a war of attrition that’s deadly. Think of it as if Jubal Early’s Force had taken the rail hub at Harrisburg PA in 1864. If I’m Ukraine I’m destroying this ASAP

This however is even bigger:

That means that Ukraine can hold or destroy this state which would cripple Russian exports of gas (and not do any favors to Europe that needs it) at any time. In fact when the Russian Counter attack comes this will likely be the first place blown up.

I’ll let Redstate tell that story but there was a bit of info that I think goes beyond the bounds of the war into something fundamental:

Those are the key words: “institutional lying”.

For Russia this institutional lying has two purposes. For those doing it in peacetime it allows the diversion of funds that are necessary for anything from training to equipment to the person committing the graft, people below either are intimidated or get their share and the people above are told all is well as are the people. This of course leads to disaster when you actually needed troops or equipment to work.

The second of course is the classic problem of delivering bad news. When dealing with a leader who makes people disappear or whose enemies have interesting “accidents” this can really hurt your life span so you do not tell the truth, particularly an uncomfortable truth and have to spin a lie to cover when disaster strikes, to wit:

This by an odd coincidence was both the same problem that the Arabs had in their various wars with Israel reporting “glorious victories” to their people while Israeli was routing their armies, in fact the “Britain did it” was the same line that both Nasser and King Hussain used in the Six Day War because it obviously couldn’t have been the Jews who destroyed their jets on the ground and neutralized their air forces in a single day.

Because it CAN’T be the mere Ukrainians successfully pulling off this attack, it HAS to be a major power like Britain attacking them, which is of course ridiculous as the government of Britain right now is too busy attacking their own citizens who tweet or retweet the wrong things.

In fact the Labour party who are all in for radical Islamists in their nation are also using “institutional lying” to deny the Two Tiered Justice system that has arisen there

And of course such visuals can not be spread, upsets the people you know.

This is also why control of the internet is so important to the left in general and anyone wanting to sell a big lie in particular because you can’t sell the “big lie” if anyone can look on twitter and see the reality happening before their eyes

Meanwhile if Croydon:

Well we can’t have news of that spread can we?

This “institutional lying” is one of the basic MO of the left/media making it a point of telling an untruth that they either want to advance over and over and accusing others of “disinformation” if they contradict it.

Consider less that 50 days ago if you suggested to anybody that Joe Biden was not able to function you were called the spreader of disinformation and assured by everyone from Joe Scarborough to Kamala Harris that Joe was as sharp as a tack. It was only when this was publicly revealed in the Debate to be a life that this fell apart, sort of like the Russian defenses and the big push to get Biden out began.

The media was shocked SHOCKED that they had fallen for the “institutional lying” that they at best had enabled and at worst had committed.

And then once Joe Biden was forced out the institutional lying pivoted stating that old Joe had dropped his campaign of his own free will and that Kamala who just a few weeks earlies people were wondering aloud how to get rid of was suddenly portrayed as the most competent person on the planet.

Nobody wants to say the reality, well ALMOST nobody:

“I don’t know if [Biden is] happy about that decision [to quit]. The presidency was taken away from Joe Biden. And I’m no Biden fan. But I’ll tell you what, from a constitutional standpoint, from any standpoint, you’re looking at they took the presidency away.”

That’s Donald Trump saying the truth out loud and publicly which is why the left has spent so much effort trying to shut him up over the last few years.

Bottom line Institutional Lying is the primary tool of any group trying to oppress you, you can either pretend it isn’t happening or fight, your choice.

I’ll give the last word to Christ:

you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

John 9:32

Update: Glenn Reynolds makes a true historical point about the Russians that I forgot about:

Of course, the Russians have a history of carrying on when their logistics are shot. But that’s what they’ll have to do, if they are to carry on at all.

Oakland, Gaza and Southport, all self inflicted

Posted: August 6, 2024 by datechguy in Blame Biden Administration, culture
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“First we must cross the river,” Benito was saying.  “Do you believe me now when I tell you that you must not attempt to swim it, or even get wet from it, or must you try that too?”

“What happens if I just dive in?”

“Then you will be as you were in the bottle.  Aware and unable to move.  but it will be very cold, and very uncomfortable, and you will be there for all eternity knowing that you put yourself there.”

Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle Inferno 1976

As I look at the situation in Oakland where lawlessness is out of control and the situation in Gaza where the Palestinians of the area find themselves longing for the days before Oct 7th in and Southport where both the community and the entire British nation are reeling from riots caused after the murder of multiple school children there is one thing that connects them all.

All of these disasters are self inflicted.

In Oakland they have voted left, left and further left, they have failed to enforce the laws and protected crime, they have condemned those who oppose said crime. In short, they have behaved like a liberal city and like many liberal cites in the US those who have the power to get out have and thus they find themselves with a shrinking tax base, lawlessness in the streets and no prospect for it to change. Even the Oakland A’s who moved there in 1968 are getting out of town and will actually be playing in a minor league park before their final move to Vegas where fans will be safe.

None of this happens without the votes of the public.

In Gaza once Israel pulled out 20 years ago the populace voted in Hamas. They gave silent approval as elections no longer took place and aid money went to tunnels, some so large that you could drive trucks through them. They had no issue with hospitals built with command centers for war, rockets regularly firing into Israel and when the October 7th attacks took place, Palestinians “civilians” were the second wave the looted Israeli homes and beat captives taken back to their land.

Israel finally waking from their long period of tolerance for these attacks has gone in and crushed Gaza, With the taking of the border with Egypt and the demolishing and capture of the tunnels brining in weapons it’s only a matter of time before the weapon and ammo stores fail and the final rout of Hamas is completed.

Meanwhile Gaza has cities crushed from war and finds themselves dependent on external aid…which Hamas still steals and resells for profit.

All of this is the result of choosing Hamas and more importantly choosing killing Jews over living and bettering their own lives.

In England the Labor government and the Labor party has been encouraging unfettered immigration without assimilation for decades but more importantly they have encouraged law enforcement to look the other way when these guest commit crimes or march and take over cities.

When the left rioted and destroyed they “felt their pain” but when native English prayed or posted opinions against this the full wait of the govvernment was used against them.

Finally with the murder of children people have had enough to the point where there are not only riots in England but in Northern Ireland Unionists and the IRA have untied against the two tiered justice system.

It would be easy to blame Labor but conservatives (well the British version of conservatives) were in power for a long time but were all in on this two tiered system as they wanted at all costs to not be called racists and if cities had to be taken over and girls raped and a few people killed, well it’s was all for the greater good.

Even with the unfettered immigration England could have avoided this by simply enforcing the law equally. All they had to do was law down the marker that you can’t do this kind of thing in Britain without consequences.

They did not and now the fight is on. England seems poised for perhaps its 3rd civil war. I don’t know if it will go that far but I’ll tell you it will get much worse before it gets better.

All three of these things come from not being will to see things as they are, in the light of truth. If we fail to do this as a nation their fate will be ours.

Review, Van Morrison’s Live at Orangefield

Posted: August 4, 2024 by John Ruberry in covid, culture, entertainment
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By John Ruberry

Under the radar, a new Van Morrison album has arrived. On Morrison’s website, the release of Live at Orangefield, had been promised for a while, and last month, on vinyl and CD, on Van the Man’s Orangefield Records, it went on sale. 

I subscribe to iTunes, and with any artist whose work I’ve downloaded, I will usually find that performer’s latest effort on the “New Releases” tab of my Apple Music homepage. But not always with Morrison, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member who has released an astounding 45 studio albums since 1967. 

Morrison, a native of Belfast, Northern Ireland, also has cut six live albums. His first one, It’s Too Late to Stop Now–an expanded edition was issued in 2016–is one of the best live albums ever. His second live collection, Live at the Grand Opera House Belfast, obviously was recorded in his hometown. 

As was Live at Orangefield. The Belfast Cowboy’s first live performance took place with his skiffle group in 1959 at Orangefield High School when he was a student there. In 2014, the school closed, and to salute the school–and even more so Belfast–Morrison, with his always tight band, returned.

A Facebook Morrison group–Van, by the way, is no fan of Facebook–alerted me that Live at Orangefield was available to download. Apple didn’t notify me. Possibly, because both musically and in interviews, Morrison was probably the most strident opponent among entertainment industry figures of the COVID lockdowns, that online slight was intentional. Three Morrison singles, one recorded with Eric Clapton, attacked government COVID-related restrictions. The triple-vinyl album, Latest Record Project Volume One and its follow-up, What’s It Gonna Take?–continued the pushback. 

While there were some favorable reviews, most critics savaged, unfairly, that output. Rock critics are mostly an intellectually vapid lot–and like sportswriters, most of them prefer writing about politics when the opportunity arises. Morrison, despite his legendary status, offered those mental midgets a ripe target. But history has been kind to this septuagenarian rebel. At the very least, the COVID lockdowns were an overreach. Still, in the media and the music business, Van Morrison, is almost certainly purposely ignored. 

In a Google News search, as of this writing, I could only find two reviews of Live at Orangefield.

And that’s a pity, because Live at Orangefield is an essential Morrison work. While Morrison has a reputation as an aloof and ornery fellow–which is either not true or it is possibly an exaggeration pushed by those self-worshipping rock critics–he offers some charm here.

In a mostly spoken-word piece on this album, “On Hyndford Street,” Morrison calls out to the crowd, “If any of the guys from ‘the street’ are here, give me a shout if you remember this one.” 

Playing ’round Mrs. Kelly’s lamp
Going out to Holywood on the bus 
And walking from the end of the lines to the seaside
Stopping at Fusco’s for ice cream [loud cheers follow] 
In the days before rock ‘n’ roll.

I looked it up–I don’t know if the establishment I found online is the same Fusco’s that Morrison and his pals used to patronize, but there is a Fusco’s in Belfast.

Van the Man was born on August 31, 1945 at 145 Hyndford Street. And particularly with “On Hyndford Street,” which as originally released on the Hymns to the Silence double album, but also on other tracks here, listeners get the feeling that they are participating in a walking tour of Belfast–with Morrison as a tour guide.

I’ve only seen Morrison once in concert–he was fantastic. Morrison has a reputation for not playing many of his hits from the overexposed “classic rock” era. But Van is a performer, not a fossil, and if he had fossilized his career, then he’d be on the stale casino circuit along with Lynard Skynard, which carries on even though that band has no original members left on its roster. But they play the hits, as do the Van Morrison tribute bands. 

But there are some of those Van hits on Live at Orangefield. The album opens with the instrumental “Celtic Excavation,” and then segues to “Into the Mystic.” Belfast of course is a seaport. I don’t know if this stanza is about Belfast, but it could be.

And when that foghorn blows
I will be coming home
And when the foghorn blows 
I want to hear it 
I don’t have to fear it.

Another hit, albeit a minor one, “Cleaning Windows,” follows. Morrison’s job before becoming a full-time musician was toiling as a window washer in Belfast. Then comes “Orangefield” and “Moondance.”

Other Belfast-related songs include “Got to Go Back” and “Northern Muse (Solid Ground).”

Another highlight here is “That’s Life,” the Frank Sinatra song, which Morrison recorded with Georgie Fame in 1995. Lyrically it’s an important addition to the set list, and musically too. In the 2000s and the following decade, much of Van the Man’s output had a jazzy and swing feel. New age jazz is a genre Morrison worked with in the 1980s; several of the songs I mentioned earlier utilize that sound. 

Live at Orangefield is an essential collection for the Morrison fan, and it’s a good place to start, particularly if you enjoy jazz-flavored popular music, if you want to learn more about this fantastic musician. 

And if you live in Belfast–then, man, what are you waiting for?

One more thing: Smart people listen to Van Morrison.

Live at Orangefield is available in vinyl and CD forms at Van Morrison.com. And you can download it at iTunes and stream it on Spotify.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

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