The Annual Admiral Of The Ocean Sea Appreciation Post

Posted on | October 11, 2021 | Comments Off on The Annual Admiral Of The Ocean Sea Appreciation Post

As usual, the senile fool in the Oval Office tried to have it both ways, issuing proclamations celebrating both Columbus Day (yay) and Indigenous Peoples Day (F*** Joe Biden) and inevitably annoying just about everybody.
Silicon Valley delenda est.

Makes you think.

Meanwhile at Instapundit, the Blogfather links to and quotes from Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison’s epic biography of Columbus, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, which sadly is not available on Kindle – but you should really get the dead tree edition anyway, because the maps are a lot easier to read that way. To satisfy the people who are always yapping about that loser short-timer Leif Ericsson, I also recommend Morison’s The European Discovery Of America: The Northern Voyages 500-1600 A.D., which is a delightful book that includes not only accounts of the aforementioned Norseman’s voyages but also Henry Hudson, Amerigo Vespucci, and dozens of others. But wait! There’s more! As if that wasn’t enough, Morison also includes chapters on apocryphal/mythical voyages by St. Brendan and Prince Madoc of Wales, the Kensington Runestone, and imaginary islands of the Atlantic that appeared on many maps during the Age of Exploration and in some cases persisted into the 20th century.

In addition to his discovery of ~~India~~New Spain, Columbus and his Spanish employers also gave rise to one of the wilder and most memorable episodes of history, to say nothing of dozens of movies and novels – the infamous Pirates of the Caribbean, which people have come to associate more with Johnny Depp’s rum-addled Captain jack Sparrow than, say, Sabatini’s Captain Blood, so memorably portrayed on film by Errol Flynn. But list now – what if I were to advert to you that there existed a book that told all the wild tales of buccaneering rolled into one with music by Korngold, villains more villainous than anything Sabatini or Farnol could have dreamed of, bodacious babes (some of them in quite fetching leopard-skin tracksuits) and insane acts of bravery all turned up to 11? Who, you ask, could possibly have the chops to carry off something so incredibly larger than life? None other than the creator of Harry Flashman himself, George Macdonald Fraser! The Pyrates is a ripping yarn, full of sly digs at English society (17th and 20th century), Hollywood, trade unions, and the whole genre of pirate tales & movies as well. If this book can’t cheer you up, consult a physician to see if you are already dead.

It’s been a long time since I read Jack Campbell’s Lost Fleet series, so I downloaded Dauntless and Fearless this weekend and got stuck in. En route to a peace conference in Syndic space, an Alliance fleet finds a survival pod holding an officer thought dead for a century – Commander John Geary, whose sacrifice in an early battle led to his being posthumously promoted to Captain and turned into a legend – “Black Jack Geary”. While Geary slept, the war has eroded the Alliance fleet and its members – tactics and skills have been forgotten, ships built cheaply and quickly out of desperation, morals abandoned – and he finds himself very much out of place and very disturbed that everyone seems to regard him as a legendary savior. It’s not Geary’s fate to be allowed to adapt in his own good time, though – before departing for the peace conference, the fleet’s admiral puts Geary in charge in case something goes awry. Needless to say, it does – the conference was a trap, and the Admiral is shot down in cold blood, as the Syndics expect a decapitating strike will paralyze the Alliance fleet. Not with “Black Jack” in charge, though. The series recounts Geary’s journey back to Alliance space with his fleet, evading superior numbers of Syndic warships while wreaking havoc in their rear areas and bringing his subordinates and education in tactics and strategy to match their unquestionable (if occasionally excessive) courage. High-quality space opera with solid characters. Highly recommended.

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Category: Books

Patriots Win Ugly

Posted on | October 11, 2021 | Comments Off on Patriots Win Ugly

When the New England Patriots drafted Alabama quarterback Mac Jones, they also drafted me as a fan — Go Patriots, because Roll Tide! So I was pleased that the team came away with a victory Sunday over the Houston Texans. It was an ugly win, but a win is a win, and after the previous week’s heartbreaking loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, I’m sure the Patriots are happy to have it. Being 2-3 is better than being 1-4, and New England was playing with an offensive line devastated by injuries and COVID-19 protocols. Apparently, two of their linemen haven’t been vaccinated, and I suppose liberals will blame Trump for that. One of the backup linemen brought in as a replacement has a familiar name, Ted Karras III. His father was an NFL lineman, as was his grandfather, and two of his grandfather’s brothers, including the famous Alex Karras, who starred in Blazing Saddles. Meanwhile . . .

Mac Jones completed 23 of 30 passes for 231 yards, with one touchdown and one interception as he “delivered his first comeback victory,” leading two fourth-quarter scoring drives in the 25-22 Patriots win. His fellow Alabama rookie, defensive lineman Christian Barmore, also contributed to the win by drawing two holding penalties against the Texans. Another former Tide star, running back Damien Harris, was almost the scapegoat, after a goal-line fumble on what would have been New England’s second TD drive. As it was, Harris finished with 58 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries before leaving the game early in the fourth quarter with an injury to his ribs. After winning on the road against Houston, the Patriots return home next Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys, who at 4-1 are the leaders of the NFC East. Thanks to their ugly win Sunday, New England is now in second place in the AFC East behind the Buffalo Bills.

Category: Football

Rule 5 Sunday: Carol Cleveland

Posted on | October 11, 2021 | Comments Off on Rule 5 Sunday: Carol Cleveland

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Carol Cleveland was a comedy actress before getting involved with the guys who invented Monty Python’s Flying Circus, but most of us remember her as the smashing blonde on the show, and in fact she was worried that it might keep her from getting other work. Guess not. Here’s a shot of her from 1965.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

1965 (colourized)

Ninety Miles From Tyranny: Hot Pick of the Late Night, The 90 Miles Mystery Box Episode #1498, Morning Mistress, and Girls With Guns.

Animal Magnetism: Rule Five Six Decades Friday and a Supersized Saturday Gingermageddon.

EBL: MAGA – Let’s Go Brandon!, Tove Lo, Hymn To Red October, Maid, Malignant, The Squid Game, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Escondido, and Julie London.

A View From The Beach: Croatian Cutie – Natalija Ugrina, Dutch Beauty Dodges the Needle, Good News for Chesapeake Eels, Fish Pic Friday – Brooke Victoria, A Real ‘Come to Jesus’ Moment, Demon Dreams, #HerToo, Except When Her Career is at Stake, More Wednesday Wetness, Tuesday Tanlines, Monday Morning Stimulus, and Palm Sunday

Brian J. Noggle: Diamante

Thanks to everyone for all the luscious links!

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Category: Rule 5

FMJRA 2.0: Mindphaser

Posted on | October 10, 2021 | Comments Off on FMJRA 2.0: Mindphaser

— compiled by Wombat-socho

There is joy in Washington tonight as my Senators took two of three from the O’s and then the Yankees. Next up, the 2-4 Indians.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

My field of dreams – RFK Stadium in Washington DC

Don’t Question ‘The Science’?
Bacon Time
EBL

FMJRA 2.0: Positive Bleeding
A View From The Beach
EBL

Tide Rolls, Dawgs Dominate, Ducks Lose, Cincinnati Defeats Notre Dame
EBL

Rule 5 Sunday: Gwen Stefani & The Harajuku Girls
Animal Magnetism
Ninety Miles From Tyranny
A View From The Beach
EBL

$3.5 Trillion = Zero-Point-Zero Dollars?
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

In The Mailbox: 10.04.21
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

In The Mailbox: 10.05.21
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

FBI Now Targeting Parents as Terrorists
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

In The Mailbox: 10.06.21
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

Milwaukee Teen Killed by Racist System and High-Speed Head-On Collision, But…
First Street Journal
357 Magnum
EBL

In The Mailbox: 10.07.21
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

Congress Subpoenas Ali
A View From The Beach
EBL

Lepanto
EBL

In The Mailbox: 10.08.21
A View From The Beach
357 Magnum
EBL

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Category: FMJRA Award

Alabama … LOST?

Posted on | October 10, 2021 | Comments Off on Alabama … LOST?

After last night’s heartbreaking loss at Texas A&M, I texted my sons, “Y’all boys have been spoiled by Saban.” Over the past 13 seasons, dating back to 2008, Alabama has lost only 17 games, while recording two undefeated seasons (2009 and 2020) and winning six national championships. Under Saban, the Crimson Tide has won so often that a defeat seems unthinkable; going into Saturday’s A&M game, ’Bama had won 19 consecutive games dating back to a 2019 loss to Auburn.

We must not lose perspective. Only once under Saban has Alabama recorded back-to-back national championships, in the 2011 and 2012 seasons, with A.J. McCarron at quarterback, and a powerful running game led by Trent Richardson (2011) and the one-two combination of Eddie Lacy and T.J. Yeldon in 2012. But what distinguished those teams was defense — the Tide was at or near No. 1 in every defensive category.

It would perhaps be too much to hope that Alabama could repeat that feat of back-to-back national titles, especially after sending so many players from last year’s team to the NFL, including six first-round draft picks — Jaylen Waddle, Patrick Surtain, DeVonta Smith, Mac Jones, Alex Leatherwood and Najee Harris. As folks say, Alabama doesn’t “rebuild,” they reload, but that’s an awful lot of talent to replace in a year and, due to injuries, the Crimson Tide was actually starting a true freshmen on defense Saturday. True, Dallas Turner is a five-star recruit, but it doesn’t change the fact that a year ago he was playing high-school ball.

Being an Alabama fan means there are no excuses for losing, however. We actually expect to win every game — Saban has spoiled us, as I say — and so the occasional defeat is traumatic. I remember the 2015 loss to Ole Miss the way some people remember where they were on 9/11.

Speaking of the 24 points Alabama gave up to A&M in the first half Saturday, Saban said tersely: “There were a lot of issues.”

That’s a succinct understatement. Much of the problem is with the Crimson Tide’s offense, which was inconsistent — at times brilliant, but at other times hapless. My brother Kirby focused his blame on our “midget quarterback” Bryce Young, who is listed on the roster at 6 feet tall, but whom Kirby insists is no taller than 5-foot-10. However tall he is, Young is shorter than Mac Jones (6-3), and as a sophomore, does not yet have the steadiness that Jones showed as a senior in last year’s national championship season. My grievance, however, is that Alabama was throwing the ball too much. Our star running back, Brian Robinson Jr., had 24 carries for 147 yards — more than six yards per carry — and yet the coaches would not commit to the running game as the key to their offense. Call me old-fashioned, if you will, but if the running game’s going good — and 6 yards a carry is very good — why even pass the ball at all? Robinson left, Robinson right, Robinson up the middle — that would have been my game plan, at least until Texas A&M was forced to stack the box against him, and then we’d kill them with the pass.

Details, details. No doubt the coaches and players reviewing video of the game will have many post-game critiques of their decisions, but the season goes forward, and there is no time for regrets. The joy of cheering America’s greatest college football program comes weighted with a burden of sorrow, the death-like pangs of misery whenever Alabama loses. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it really hurts.

Category: Alabama, Football

‘Smart Takes’ = Too Clever By Half

Posted on | October 9, 2021 | Comments Off on ‘Smart Takes’ = Too Clever By Half

The first thing to understand about Jonathan Chait is that he has never been anything but a pundit. He hired on at The New Republic fresh out of the University of Michigan, and has never done the kind of journalism that involves any actual reporting. He’s never worked at a newspaper, covering city council meetings or zoning boards, and instead has always aspired to be an intellectual, telling others what to think.

America is cursed with a vast surplus of such “journalists,” whose only interest is influencing politics on the grand scale — aspiring to be persons of world-historic importance, “public intellectuals” on the model of Arthur Schlesinger Jr. or Kenneth Galbraith. They exclusively focus on the Big Picture, and thus can never be bothered to write about any subject they deem less important than the Destiny of Humankind which, it turns out, always somehow involves U.S. electoral politics.

The second thing to understand about Jonathan Chait is that he is a partisan Democrat. There’s no need to bother with labels like “liberal” or “progressive,” really, because all Chait really cares about — the bottom line of his punditry — is helping Democrats win elections.

You could say the same not only of most pundits like Chait, but the entire class of “journalists” employed by such institutions as the Washington Post, the New York Times, NBC, ABC, CBS, etc., who never for a minute lose sight of their existential purpose — their raison d’être — which is to help Democrats win elections. This is why national “news” coverage has become an exercise in political propaganda, because the editors and producers involved in deciding what counts as “news” always evaluate stories on the basis of how they might influence elections, with an eye toward helping Democrats win. In many cases, the same exact story — e.g., a mass shooting — will either attract saturation coverage from the national media or be completely ignored, based upon the identity and motives of the shooter, and how this fits into the political narrative that Democrats want to advance. If the gunman is white, this is national news; if he had any sort of “right-wing” motive, he’ll make the front page of the New York Times. But nobody who watches MSNBC or CNN will ever hear the name of Timothy Simpkins, for some reason.

In general, “journalists” are oblivious to their own partisan bias. There is no one in the newsroom of the Washington Post or NBC who would ever call attention to the blatant dishonesty of what they are selling as “news.” The hiring process at such organizations ensures no one is ever employed who isn’t down for the agenda of helping Democrats win elections. And therefore, as I’ve said for years, journalists don’t notice liberal bias for the same reason fish don’t notice water — it surrounds them, and they are so deeply submerged in it that they could not imagine life without it.

And this brings us back to the kind of punditry practiced by Jonathan Chait, whose specialty is the “smart take” — discovering (or, if necessary, inventing) some angle on political current events that is so unusual as to astonish his peers by its audacious cleverness. This generally involves a deliberate contradiction of conventional wisdom, and is a sort of show-off game, wherein the liberal intellectual flaunts his skill by mounting an argument in favor of something he knows most of his readers are against, or vice-versa. Thus, in February 2016, as the GOP presidential primary campaign was underway in earnest, Chait published this:

Why Liberals Should Support a Trump Republican Nomination
The initial stupefaction and dismay with which liberals greeted Donald Trump’s candidacy have slowly given way to feelings of Schadenfreude— reveling in the suffering of others, in this case the apoplectic members of the Republican Establishment. Are such feelings morally wrong? Or can liberals enjoy the spectacle unleavened by guilt? As Republican voters start actually voting, is it okay to be sad — alarmed, even — by the prospect that the Trump hostile takeover of the GOP may fail?
There are three reasons, in descending order of obviousness, for a liberal to earnestly and patriotically support a Trump Republican nomination. The first, of course, is that he would almost certainly lose. . . .

Well, how’d that work out for ya, Mister Chait?

This particular “smart take” displayed many of the characteristic traits of the species. His first sentence, for example, includes three fancy words — stupefaction, schadenfreude, and apoplectic — which serve chiefly to signify that Chait’s SAT score was higher than yours. There are times, of course, when such words may be necessary and appropriate, but to cram all three of these words into the first sentence of your column?

However, Chait’s intellectual exhibitionist tendency is not confined to displaying a collegiate vocabulary. He also engages in ostentatious exhibition of advanced analytical skill:

The GOP is a machine that harnesses ethno-nationalistic fear — of communists, criminals, matrimonial gays, terrorists, snooty cultural elites — to win elections and then, once in office, caters to its wealthy donor base. . . . As its voting base has lost college-educated voters and gained blue-collar whites, the fissure between the means by which Republicans attain power and the ends they pursue once they have it has widened.

You see that Chait was presuming to describe to his liberal readers, in February 2016, a fundamental conflict within the Republican Party which Trump would make worse. It apparently did not occur to Chait that one could say much the same about the Democratic Party, which has its own “wealthy donor base” whose interests are arguably at odds with the interests of the people on whom the party relies to win elections.

This paragraph-long putdown of the GOP was Chait’s attempt to supply the spoonful of sugar to make the “smart take” medicine go down. If you’re going to try to convince liberals that it’s really a good thing for Donald Trump to win the GOP nomination — the source of rampant panic among Democrats in 2016 and thereafter — you must signify tribal membership: “I’m on your side. I hate Republicans, too.”

Describing the Republican Party as “a machine that harnesses ethno-nationalistic fear” was also a sort of Godwin’s Law dog whistle, a way of smearing them as Nazis without saying so directly. And this brings us to a third important point about Jonathan Chait: He’s a Jew.

This is a fact that I would prefer not to mention, as I don’t wish to attract any Stormfront readership, or to encourage anti-Semitism. But there are times — and this is certainly one of them — when the fact that a liberal intellectual is Jewish cannot be ignored. When Chait described the GOP as a “machine” based on “ethno-nationalistic fear,” he knew damned well what he was implying, and so did his intended readership. Every four years, the liberal media gin up a propaganda campaign to smear the Republican presidential nominee as The Next Hitler, and they do this in large measure because they want to mobilize Jews into an all-out effort on behalf of whichever Gentile gets the Democratic nomination.

It perhaps did not escape Jonathan Chait’s notice how, in the 2016 Democratic primaries, Team Hillary leveraged the party apparatus to cheat Bernie Sanders out of the nomination, and why? Because it would not do — the “optics” would not be optimal — for Democrats to nominate an actual socialist Jew for president, as this would more or less confirm what anti-Semites have said about liberalism all along. Nightmarish fears that the various components of the Democratic Party coalition might go flying asunder with Sanders as the nominee were part of the calculus that helped Team Hillary fend off the left-wing populist challenge of Sanders in 2016, as it was for Joe Biden in 2020. While Democrats regularly attract 75% of the Jewish vote (to say nothing of Jewish campaign contributions), they are at the same time eager to avoid the appearance of being an instrument of what anti-Semites would call the Worldwide Jewish Conspiracy because many black voters are anti-Semites.

And Democrats can never win elections without 90% of the black vote.

“Gonna put y’all back in chains,” remember? Please remind me — I’ve forgotten — which party is harnessing “ethno-nationalistic fear”?

No, I could not avoid mentioning that Jonathan Chait is Jewish, because this is highly relevant not only to the style of “smart take” punditry he practices, but also to the habitual way Democrats accuse Republicans of being crypto-Nazis. Why do Democrats always get 75% of the Jewish vote, anyway? Books have been written on the subject — e.g., Why Are Jews Liberal? by Norman Podhoretz — and an undeniable part of this syndrome is that Jews have been taught to believe that “the right” in America is contiguous with “the right” in Germany circa 1932.

It is not necessary here to explain everything that’s wrong with that analogy, and I’m already past the 1,400-word mark, so I won’t bother to examine this in any detail. My only point is that, when Jonathan Chait accused the GOP of being an “ethno-nationalist fear” machine, he knew exactly how that would be understood among his Jewish readers, and so the fact that Chait is Jewish becomes the elephant in the room — and I can’t help but notice this “Republicans Are Actually Nazis” theme being endlessly reiterated by other liberal Jewish pundits.

Oh, but the “smart take” pundit who argued in 2016 that liberals should be in favor of Donald Trump as the GOP nominee — because Trump “would almost certainly lose” — has a new “smart take”:

Anybody Fighting Joe Biden
Is Helping Trump’s Next Coup
All Republican politics is now
functionally authoritarian.

The words “coup” and “authoritarian” here have special meanings to Democrats because (a) Trump never staged an actual “coup,” but merely acted on his belief that the 2020 election was stolen, in attempting to prevent Biden (whom he regarded as the beneficiary of fraud) from being installed as president, and (b) Chait never accused Democrats of being “authoritarian” when they were protesting what they regarded as illegitimate election results (e.g., Stacey Abrams in 2018). Part of the magical function of the liberal media echo chamber is that it enables them to change the definitions of words without ever being called to account for this dishonest semantic abracadabra.

Exactly how are Trump and his supporters “authoritarian” in a way that Biden and his supporters are not? Well, never mind that. Chait takes it for granted that all his liberal readers know exactly what is intended by this smear — TRUMP IS HITLER! REPUBLICANS ARE NAZIS! — and he expects that no one whose opinion actually matters will find fault with such an accusation. Furthermore, Chait does not expect anyone to point out that the essence of his argument is mere partisan cheerleading: Biden’s poll numbers are in the tank, so every loyal Democrat has a sacred duty to rally ’round the embattled leader — or else!

The bogeyman threat of another Trump “coup” (whatever that’s supposed to mean) is brandished as an alternative to partisan solidarity: “Unless we all stick together now, in Biden’s darkest hour, there will be a return of the ‘authoritarian’ ORANGE MAN BAD!”

What Chait is saying here is really crude and simplistic, and yet he dresses it up in the costume of intellectualism. The “smart take” is actually so stupid that any partisan hack could do it, provided he keeps a thesaurus handy to supply himself with some fancy high-SAT words.

pic.twitter.com/KvPEcLbwcD

— Tim Mathis (@timmathiscomedy) October 7, 2021

We’re not laughing with you, Mister Chait, we’re laughing at you.

Category: Intellectuals, Liberals

In The Mailbox: 10.08.21

Posted on | October 9, 2021 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 10.08.21

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Since I am turning sixty-two around 5 AM tomorrow, I plan on spending the day indulging in various species of debauchery, most likely involving Mexican food, video games, and possibly baseball, but not including blogging. This means the FMJRA is being officially punted to Sunday, so your links aren’t due until noon on Sunday along with those for Rule 5 Sunday. If you want to throw books at me, my Amazon wish list is here; if you want to throw money, the tip jar button is at the bottom of this post; if you just want to congratulate me on another successful orbit around the sun, you know where to find the comments. Hard to believe I’ve been doing this for over a decade now.
Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley esse delendam.

Another Friday, another Komi in a bunny suit.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: Your Papers Are Not In Order – Australian Edition
EBL: Maid, also, Mr. Alexander Goes To Washington
Twitchy: Shelley Meyer’s Last Tweet, also, Photographer Captures The Magical Moment When A Bird Craps On Don Lemon
Louder With Crowder: Biden Celebrates United Airlines’ Jab Rate – Achieved By Firing Hundreds Of People
Vox Popoli: U.S. Provides Casus Belli To Red China, also, Don’t Blame Russia If Europe Freezes
According To Hoyt: Make Room, also, Surfing The Event Horizon
Monster Hunter Nation: October Update Post, WriterDojo S1E8 – Heroes & Villains, and Series 3 Challenge Coins & Swag Shop Opening
Stoic Observations: The Survivor

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: FDA Failures & The Public Health Regime
American Greatness: TX School Shooter Released On Bail One Day After Shooting, also, Elon Musk Announces Tesla’s Move From CA To New Texas Headquarters
American Power: NYC Phasing Out Its Gifted & Talented Program
American Thinker: Democrats’ Antisemitism – It’s Not Just The Squad, also, Follow The Science (Except When It Comes To Natural Immunity)
Animal Magnetism: Rule Five Six Decades Friday
Babalu Blog: Media Continues Propagating The Myth Of Educational Excellence In Communist Cuba, also, On This Day In History – Racist Mass Murderer Che Guevara Captured In Bolivia
BattleSwarm: Internet Outage
Behind The Black: Today’s Blacklisted American, also, Perseverance Data Indicated Jezero Crater Once Held A Lake
Cafe Hayek: Cleaned By Capitalism XLII
CDR Salamander: Fullbore Friday
Da Tech Guy: Fr. Leonard Mary Ravella Of EWTN Returns To Fitchburg
Don Surber: Fairfax County Schools Are Everything That Is Wrong With America, NYT – Freedom Is Bad For You, and Media Uses Trump Hotel As Distraction From Biden’s Chaos
First Street Journal: Philly Jab Mandate Delayed But Not Ended, also, This Guy Must Like Jail!
Gates Of Vienna: Why Is Red China So Dangerous?
The Geller Report: The Plot To Destroy America
Hogewash: Don’t Know Much About History
Hollywood In Toto: Critics Whine That Dave Chappelle’s Closer Is Bigoted & Transphobic, Movies Plus Brings “Banned” Movies To Your Streaming Device, and Have We Reached Peak Woke?
The Lid: State AGs Vow To Protect Protesting Parents From Garland’s FBI
Legal Insurrection: Ohio Northern U. Rejects College Republicans’ Request To Print “Back The Blue” On T-Shirts, also, DOJ Attack On Parent Protest Movement Was Pre-Arranged Ambush, Says Letter Requesting IG Investigation
Nebraska Energy Observer: Scattershot Friday
Outkick: Sox Suck – Astros & Rays Dominate Day 1 Of ALDS, Raiders Head Coach Gruden Under Fire For Racially Insensitive Email, and Joe Montana Thinks Tom Brady Can Play Until He’s Sixty
Power Line: Where We Are Now, Terry McAuliffe Squirms, and Ruling Class In Free Fall?
Protein Wisdom: Study – Antibody Levels Decrease After Two Doses Of Pfizer Vaccine
Shark Tank: Major Screwup By Nikki Fried
Shot In The Dark: Counterintuitive, While Things Are Headed In The Right Direction, and A Rorschach Blob
The Political Hat: Firing Line Friday – Proposals For Welfare
This Ain’t Hell: Valor Friday, Andrew Yang On Leaving The Democrats, and GOP Senators Address Alleged Anti-Christian Stance Of Nominee That Would Oversee Chaplains
Transterrestrial Musings: Light Posting
Victory Girls: “Civility Is Gone”, also, September Jobs Report A Build Back Bust
Volokh Conspiracy: Short Circuit – A Roundup Of Recent Federal Court Decisions
Weasel Zippers: McAuliffe – Parents Concerned About CRT Are Racist, Code Pink Boards The Sinema Harassment Train, and McAuliffe Has Debt Consultant & Competitive Eater Stacy Abrams Stumping For Him
The Federalist: Pentagon Investigating Marine Combat Veteran For Shaking Trump’s Hand At Rally, also, The Left Doesn’t Actually Care About “Democracy”
Mark Steyn: Collateral Sacking, We Have Met The Enemy Part XXIII, and Mr. Thorpe’s Shout

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Category: Linkagery

Lepanto

Posted on | October 8, 2021 | Comments Off on Lepanto

— by Wombat-socho

“We are in a new phase of a very old war.” – Gates of Vienna

I am reminded by this post linked on Instapundit that I should have posted this yesterday.

Don Juan de Austria, victor of Lepanto.

Lepanto

BY G. K. CHESTERTON

White founts falling in the courts of the sun,
And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run;
There is laughter like the fountains in that face of all men feared,
It stirs the forest darkness, the darkness of his beard,
It curls the blood-red crescent, the crescent of his lips,
For the inmost sea of all the earth is shaken with his ships.
They have dared the white republics up the capes of Italy,
They have dashed the Adriatic round the Lion of the Sea,
And the Pope has cast his arms abroad for agony and loss,
And called the kings of Christendom for swords about the Cross,
The cold queen of England is looking in the glass;
The shadow of the Valois is yawning at the Mass;
From evening isles fantastical rings faint the Spanish gun,
And the Lord upon the Golden Horn is laughing in the sun.

Dim drums throbbing, in the hills half heard,
Where only on a nameless throne a crownless prince has stirred,
Where, risen from a doubtful seat and half attainted stall,
The last knight of Europe takes weapons from the wall,
The last and lingering troubadour to whom the bird has sung,
That once went singing southward when all the world was young,
In that enormous silence, tiny and unafraid,
Comes up along a winding road the noise of the Crusade.
Strong gongs groaning as the guns boom far,
Don John of Austria is going to the war,
Stiff flags straining in the night-blasts cold
In the gloom black-purple, in the glint old-gold,
Torchlight crimson on the copper kettle-drums,
Then the tuckets, then the trumpets, then the cannon, and he comes.
Don John laughing in the brave beard curled,
Spurning of his stirrups like the thrones of all the world,
Holding his head up for a flag of all the free.
Love-light of Spain—hurrah!
Death-light of Africa!
Don John of Austria
Is riding to the sea.

Mahound is in his paradise above the evening star,
(Don John of Austria is going to the war.)
He moves a mighty turban on the timeless houri’s knees,
His turban that is woven of the sunset and the seas.
He shakes the peacock gardens as he rises from his ease,
And he strides among the tree-tops and is taller than the trees,
And his voice through all the garden is a thunder sent to bring
Black Azrael and Ariel and Ammon on the wing.
Giants and the Genii,
Multiplex of wing and eye,
Whose strong obedience broke the sky
When Solomon was king.

They rush in red and purple from the red clouds of the morn,
From temples where the yellow gods shut up their eyes in scorn;
They rise in green robes roaring from the green hells of the sea
Where fallen skies and evil hues and eyeless creatures be;
On them the sea-valves cluster and the grey sea-forests curl,
Splashed with a splendid sickness, the sickness of the pearl;
They swell in sapphire smoke out of the blue cracks of the ground,—
They gather and they wonder and give worship to Mahound.
And he saith, “Break up the mountains where the hermit-folk can hide,
And sift the red and silver sands lest bone of saint abide,
And chase the Giaours flying night and day, not giving rest,
For that which was our trouble comes again out of the west.
We have set the seal of Solomon on all things under sun,
Of knowledge and of sorrow and endurance of things done,
But a noise is in the mountains, in the mountains, and I know
The voice that shook our palaces—four hundred years ago:
It is he that saith not ‘Kismet’; it is he that knows not Fate ;
It is Richard, it is Raymond, it is Godfrey in the gate!
It is he whose loss is laughter when he counts the wager worth,
Put down your feet upon him, that our peace be on the earth.”
For he heard drums groaning and he heard guns jar,
(Don John of Austria is going to the war.)
Sudden and still—hurrah!
Bolt from Iberia!
Don John of Austria
Is gone by Alcalar.

St. Michael’s on his mountain in the sea-roads of the north
(Don John of Austria is girt and going forth.)
Where the grey seas glitter and the sharp tides shift
And the sea folk labour and the red sails lift.
He shakes his lance of iron and he claps his wings of stone;
The noise is gone through Normandy; the noise is gone alone;
The North is full of tangled things and texts and aching eyes
And dead is all the innocence of anger and surprise,
And Christian killeth Christian in a narrow dusty room,
And Christian dreadeth Christ that hath a newer face of doom,
And Christian hateth Mary that God kissed in Galilee,
But Don John of Austria is riding to the sea.
Don John calling through the blast and the eclipse
Crying with the trumpet, with the trumpet of his lips,
Trumpet that sayeth ha!
Domino gloria!
Don John of Austria
Is shouting to the ships.

King Philip’s in his closet with the Fleece about his neck
(Don John of Austria is armed upon the deck.)
The walls are hung with velvet that is black and soft as sin,
And little dwarfs creep out of it and little dwarfs creep in.
He holds a crystal phial that has colours like the moon,
He touches, and it tingles, and he trembles very soon,
And his face is as a fungus of a leprous white and grey
Like plants in the high houses that are shuttered from the day,
And death is in the phial, and the end of noble work,
But Don John of Austria has fired upon the Turk.
Don John’s hunting, and his hounds have bayed—
Booms away past Italy the rumour of his raid
Gun upon gun, ha! ha!
Gun upon gun, hurrah!
Don John of Austria
Has loosed the cannonade.

The Pope was in his chapel before day or battle broke,
(Don John of Austria is hidden in the smoke.)
The hidden room in man’s house where God sits all the year,
The secret window whence the world looks small and very dear.
He sees as in a mirror on the monstrous twilight sea
The crescent of his cruel ships whose name is mystery;
They fling great shadows foe-wards, making Cross and Castle dark,
They veil the plumèd lions on the galleys of St. Mark;
And above the ships are palaces of brown, black-bearded chiefs,
And below the ships are prisons, where with multitudinous griefs,
Christian captives sick and sunless, all a labouring race repines
Like a race in sunken cities, like a nation in the mines.
They are lost like slaves that sweat, and in the skies of morning hung
The stair-ways of the tallest gods when tyranny was young.
They are countless, voiceless, hopeless as those fallen or fleeing on
Before the high Kings’ horses in the granite of Babylon.
And many a one grows witless in his quiet room in hell
Where a yellow face looks inward through the lattice of his cell,
And he finds his God forgotten, and he seeks no more a sign—
(But Don John of Austria has burst the battle-line!)
Don John pounding from the slaughter-painted poop,
Purpling all the ocean like a bloody pirate’s sloop,
Scarlet running over on the silvers and the golds,
Breaking of the hatches up and bursting of the holds,
Thronging of the thousands up that labour under sea
White for bliss and blind for sun and stunned for liberty.
Vivat Hispania!
Domino Gloria!
Don John of Austria
Has set his people free!

Cervantes on his galley sets the sword back in the sheath
(Don John of Austria rides homeward with a wreath.)
And he sees across a weary land a straggling road in Spain,
Up which a lean and foolish knight forever rides in vain,
And he smiles, but not as Sultans smile, and settles back the blade….
(But Don John of Austria rides home from the Crusade.)

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