Ewan McGregor: A Brothers’ Guide to Scotland

 From Expedia Magazine:

“There’s always a moment of silence,” says Ewan McGregor, “when you reach the top of the mountain, and you don’t need words. You just stop and look and drink it in: that sense of scale and space. And then you open your sandwiches.” The actor swapped the forest-covered peaks of Scotland for the star-studded hills of Hollywood years ago, but his fierce love for his native land has never dimmed: its shimmering, majestic lochs, its ruined castles, its windswept, ever-changing weather, and its warm, whisky-laced welcome in cozy pubs with flickering fires. 

Expedia has brought McGregor—bona fide box-office superstar, travel obsessive and the voice of our TV ads—back to his homeland to be reunited with his brother Colin, a former Royal Air Force fighter pilot turned instructor. From Colin’s home in Elgin, 175 miles north of Edinburgh, the pair are headed into the Scottish wilderness in search of the northern lights. This natural phenomenon, which paints the night sky in spectacular swathes of green and blue, is currently doing its awe-inspiring thing in all sorts of places it never normally would (read more here)—lighting up both the epic mountains of the Highlands, and Scottish Twitter. (Read more.)

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RNC Still Working Against President Trump

 From L. Todd Wood at The Easton Gazette:

Sources with knowledge of what is happening inside the RNC describe a disastrous situation, where 'election integrity' efforts are window dressing, where 'real election fraud' is not discussed, and where anti-Trump operatives still wield substantial power inside the organization.

Sources also inform The Georgia Record that ninety percent of those RINO swamp creatures 'fired' after a leadership change at the RNC, which saw the removal of Ronna McDaniel, have been hired back, and are working feverishly against the re-election of President Trump.

The '500 attorneys' to be locked and loaded in GA to fight election fraud is a mirage - they don't exist.

Having thousands of blue-haired ladies in polling stations will not stop the cheat.

It's all happy talk designed to sleep walk the MAGA movement into slavery.

Sources lay out several 'must happen' initiatives that need to be immediately implemented or the election is already lost to MAGA.

1. A major focus on stopping illegals from voting.
2. A focus on preventing fraud by absentee ballots and drop boxes - all which for the most part are alive and well.
3. A focus on improving, or even requiring, signature verification.
4. Stopping the use of 'thumb drives' being used with machines to install malware.

(Read more.)

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Why Modern Art Isn’t Right

 From Daniel McCarthy at Modern Age Journal:

Alexis de Tocqueville might offer a different explanation, however. Our elites are out of touch with popular feelings, but they are not immune to the pressures of egalitarianism. How can one justify being rich or otherwise of high status in a society that prizes equality?

The wealthy don’t want to lose their wealth, but few would want to defend their unequal place by adopting a consciously aristocratic or selfish philosophy. That would be not only socially unacceptable but psychologically dissonant. Most people, rich or poor, want to be judged good by the standards of the society in which they live, not least in the court of their own conscience.

But to be an enemy of inequality can suffice as an alternative to actually being equal. This accounts for the perversity of much of the American political left, which is often wealthy or well-educated yet insists on pretending to champion the lowly and marginal. Hating traditional, even mythical, sources of inequality substitutes for loving one’s neighbor. In the world of art on either side of the Atlantic, egalitarian virtue takes the form of rejecting the past and its values. Monarchy and traditional portraiture were features of a West less egalitarian than today, and by opposing and parodying such things the artist places himself on the right side of history. (Read more.)

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King Louis XV

 From Once I Was a Clever Boy:

The historiography of his reign is very much in terms of his predecessors’ achievements and, inevitably, whether or to what extent he bares all, or much, or some, or none of the blame for the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789. Nineteenth century French writers, often sympathetic to the ideas of 1789, or hardline social and moral conservatives deeply opposed to them, seeking for the origins of revolution see them everywhere in the Ancien Régime. As Wikipedia points out a modern, if minority, trend is to be favourable to him.

I am definitely inclined to exonerate the King. Eighteenth-century Europe moved at different speeds - reforming and modernising systems that were old and slow - getting the balance right was difficult. An explosion of the entire political and social mechanism was always a risk, yet it did not happen until 1789, and then only in one country to then cause Europe-wide chaos.

I am inclined to see what happened in France as very much a typical failing of France or of the French political system. National folie de grandeur in 1848,1870, 1914,1940, 1958, and indeed in recent decades results in a great power with a self-belief out of touch with the real situation. Eighteenth century France was in advance of much of Europe and believing in what it had achieved did not always see the practical impact of or need for reform like its rival Austria faced with an existential crisis in the 1740s or Spain and Portugal later on realising they were slipping backwards. (Read more.)

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Harrison Butker’s Speech

 I thought it was the best commencement speech ever. From The National Review:

Butker addresses the audience with encouragements on motherhood and fatherhood (which has been woefully disregarded in the discourse online). He then spoke about how his wife has fulfilled the vocation that she was called to. He emphasized the goodness and importance of motherhood and noted that it has been attacked in the culture for quite a long time. While speaking about his love and admiration for his wife, he choked up. He also spoke extensively about the need for fathers in the home and the importance of men fulfilling their duties as fathers. The Catholic Church teaches that men and women are called to fatherhood and motherhood, either spiritually or physically. 

The graduates of Benedictine have been equipped with substantial knowledge of Catholic Church teachings and ethics. Many have a degree in theology and are able to parse Butker’s speech to assess what in it is true and what might need clarification.  

His speech was not given to evangelize or to change minds, but rather to encourage Benedictine students on their paths forward. As a student at Benedictine, I was never discouraged from getting my degree, finding a job, or having ambitions and dreams. I was in Gregorian Fellows, a leadership program whose goal is to create men and women leaders equipped to go out into the world. We were taught about the greatness of family life as well as the importance of evangelization. (Read more.)

 

Tucker joins the fray. From The Vigilant Fox:

“If you’re sending girls to fight your wars, you’re disgusting!”

Carlson says doing so is “violating the most basic agreement there is,” which is “the man protects.”

He added, “If there’s a home invasion at your house at 3 in the morning, you’re like, ‘Honey, I dealt with the last time. Go, go defend us.’ I hope that she leaves you, and she will.”

These comments followed Carlson recalling a past conversation in which a general described how a soldier and mother of three children, who had her legs blown off and died in Iraq, had made “the ultimate sacrifice for America.”

As you can imagine, Tucker was furious. Take a listen to how that conversation went down. (Read more.)

 From Catholic Vote:

Benedictine College is unapologetically Catholic. This shouldn’t be a shock to anyone who has spent at least 30 seconds looking at their website or Instagram. There has never been any attempt to hide or shy away from our identity. Rather, the college is proud to nurture traditional Catholic values.

As a young woman and a Benedictine student, I am proud of my college for its unashamed faith. It is a haven for young people, like me, who have not always felt accepted for what we believe and who often have to defend our views. 

Knowing this about my school, it didn’t come as a surprise to me when Benedictine asked Harrison Butker, an outspoken traditional Catholic, to give the commencement speech at this year’s graduation. 

What did come as a shock to me was the firestorm that followed.  

Butker began his speech by addressing the hardships the graduating class has faced throughout their educational journey. What stuck out to me in his introduction, however, was the intense call to action he gave the audience. 

He stated that we as Catholics must have more courage in speaking openly about our beliefs. 

“We need to stop pretending that the Church of Nice is a winning proposition,” he said.

For many, including me, this is a terrifying suggestion. It is one thing to go into the upper room and pray behind closed doors, but it is something else entirely to show my faith openly to the world. My faith is what I cherish most and it scares me to think of opening it up to ridicule from others. Butker recognizes that fear, yet still lives a boldly Catholic life. (Read more.)

 

From Carrie Gress at The Washington Examiner:

Despite the local audience who gave Butker a standing ovation and the fact that his #7 jersey is selling like hotcakes, Butker’s remarks have not been well received by the cultural elite. The NFL has distanced itself from him, with Jonathan Beane, the NFL’s senior vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer, telling NPR, “Harrison Butker gave a speech in his personal capacity. His views are not those of the NFL as an organization.”

Jason Page at MSNBC had perhaps the most eyebrow-raising response. Page said that members of the political Right “sit idly by, or even worse, may applaud the ignorance of a kicker telling women to stay at home and pop out babies in a subservient manner while worshipping their husbands. The misogyny at play is staggering.”

What is staggering is that anyone actually believes this anymore.

What the intelligentsia doesn’t yet realize is that the winds have changed, and the blather about women popping out babies and worshiping their husbands just doesn’t land the way it did 50 or even 10 years ago. Feminism fatigue has set in: Women who have been groomed for three generations to crave power and control at the expense of family are now reprioritizing.   

The girlboss is out — she has been replaced with the likes of the “softgirl” or the “tradwife,” to name two of the latest trends. These new monikers reveal that ’70s feminism is losing its grip. Women, particularly younger women, have lost their stomach for the corporate ladder grind and its requisite sacrificing of husbands and children. (Read more.)

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Shakespeare: The Genius is the Thing...

 From Laura Crockett at The History Desk:

There is a school of thought that suggests Shakespeare didn’t write his own material. As the son of a glove maker, which made him of the merchant class, the overall question goes, how could such a young man know so much about politics, history and Italians?

Good question. I’ll give you my answer.

Firstly, he wasn’t your average middle class guy when it comes to our context. He would be a very smart kid in any era. He attended the grammar school set up for the merchant’s children in Stratford. School was for boys, and boys were taught basic stuff, like math (these are merchant children, math is important), grammar, (it was called grammar school for a reason), and stuff no longer taught in our schools until university; Latin and classical Greek. He would also learn history, especially his own country’s past. Which would include the time the Romans set foot in England, and stayed for 400 years. Ergo, young Will would know Latin, which means he could read the literature of old, plus have a handle on Italian. With that classical educational background, when he was ready to write, he had plenty of resources for a good beginning.

Secondly, actors like words. Words are their tools. Like a carpenter loves his saw, it is what he does with it that matters. Actors are the same. Some words are meant to be savored, because they provide nuance, insight, into the character the actor assumes.

Writers build the tools that actors use. That makes writers gaga over words. With words, they will create a world for the actor to inhabit. Using that tool, and with guidance from a director, or, if you will, the carpenter, the actors will draw the audience into the world they are presenting. Being that Shakespeare wore both hats, writer and actor, he had a special insight into what he was doing up on that stage.

Like all writers, Shakespeare would keep up a steady amount of reading. However, reading helps the actor as well. An actor cannot convey every situation unless he as done a bit of reading. (Only male actors were allowed to act in Shakespeare’s day.) Actors portraying the female roles probably mimicked more than acted. True, like all theaters everywhere, there were a fair amount of gay men in the troop of actors. Historically, theatre people have always been liberal in their attitudes about life. But not their politics.

To say that Shakespeare did not write his works is like saying Einstein didn’t write his theories.

(Read more.)

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Remembering Tipu Sultan

Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette receive the ambassadors of Tipu Sultan in 1788

The France of Louis XVI was rapidly becoming the rival of England in the Far East which is another reason why the British government worked with the revolutionaries to overthrow the French monarchy. From the Lahore Daily Times:

4th of May marked the death anniversary of Tipu Sultan, the ruler of the south Indian kingdom of Mysore, who died gallantly defending his capital Seringapatam against the combined forces of the East India Company and the Nizam in 1799. In Pakistan, Tipu is remembered as a noble soldier and a martyr who raised his sword to preserve India’s freedom from foreign occupation. Pakistani texts ranging from historical fiction such as ‘Aur Talwar Toot Gai’ by Naseem Hijazi to television and filmic productions including Tipu Sultan a drama serial produced by PTV and Tipu Sultan a film based on Tipu’s life, portray Tipu as a semi-divine warrior having an incredible strength to fight and crush his enemies. With his god-like power, Tipu is shown to embark upon a glorious military career and achieve stunning successes not only against indigenous rivals but also foreign invaders. Tipu’s agile armies carry fire and sword into the battlefields and pound dread in the hearts of the enemies. He certainly would have stalemated the British were it not for the treachery of his own ministers and officers.

The picture of Tipu as a mighty Muslim warrior who fiercely resisted British power has had immense staying power in Pakistan. But there is much more in Tipu’s personality which needs a greater attention. The aim of this writing is to highlight those aspects of Tipu’s character that have been veiled by deific trappings in order to give a more telling portrait of him.

In our version of history, what is rarely highlighted is the fact that Tipu was a man of daring vision and enterprise. Fascinated by technological advancement of the west, Tipu set himself to the task of modernising and industrialising his kingdom. He was mindful of the importance of having one’s finger on the pulse and therefore, the need to adopt western techniques to place Mysore on the forefront of industrial progress and prosperity. He, on the one hand, welcomed medical experts from abroad and invited skilled artisans to energise industry in Mysore, and on the other hand, hired French technicians to improve his arsenal and forts. When Tipu sent an envoy to France he specifically instructed them to bring craftsmen who could make “muskets of novel designs, canon-pieces, and iron guns”.

Irfan Habib reveals that the exquisite craftsmanship of muskets produced by Mysorean foundries was endorsed by Cossigny, the governor of Pondicherry, who thought them equal to any manufactured in Europe. The judgment pronounced in Paris on two pistols presented by Tipu’s ambassadors to Louis XVI in 1788 also supports the viewpoint of Cossigny. Tipu also showed keen interest in trade and commerce with countries abroad and believed that the future of India could be changed by skillfully using the sea. Tipu employed the thriving ports of Kanara and Malabar to introduce fabulous Mysorean products including the spices, the ivory and the sandalwood, to the world across. Paying tribute to Tipu Praxy Fernandes writes, “No other sovereign in Indian history had given such an impetus to industrial production.” Through a systematic state effort Tipu strengthened trade relations with the Middle East and set up factories across the Persian Gulf. Tipu’s glittering and thriving Mysore also offered a testimonial to his belief in cultural pluralism which stands in sharp contrast to the narrow and chauvinistic nationalism displayed by the west and India today. His was a kingdom where Hindus, Muslims, and Christians lived in perfect harmony. In fact it was so constructed that it invited foreign investors and workers. Apart from encouraging Europeans Tipu also welcomed and supported Asian merchants from China, Arabia, and Armenia. Mysore, in fact, manifested how ethnically diverse societies can create a legacy of tolerance and civilization. (Read more.)

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Urban Warfare

 From Sam Harris:

Sam Harris speaks with John Spencer about the reality of urban warfare and Israel's conduct in the war in Gaza. They discuss the nature of the Hamas attacks on October 7th, what was most surprising about the Hamas videos, the difficulty in distinguishing Hamas from the rest of the population, combatants as a reflection of a society's values, how many people have been killed in Gaza, the proportion of combatants and noncombatants, the double standards to which the IDF is held, the worst criticism that can be made of Israel and the IDF, intentions vs results, what is unique about the war in Gaza, Hamas's use of human shields, what it would mean to defeat Hamas, what the IDF has accomplished so far, the destruction of the Gaza tunnel system, the details of underground warfare, the rescue of hostages, how noncombatants become combatants, how difficult it is to interpret videos of combat, what victory would look like, the likely aftermath of the war, war with Hezbollah, Iran's attack on Israel, what to do about Iran, and other topics. (Read more.)

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