Darius Rucker and Big & Rich Perform "Wagon Wheel"

An End to an Entangling Alliance?

Ron Paul opines — A Welcome US/Saudi Reset — and RT reports — Ron Paul welcomes US-Saudi rift. "Why does Saudi Arabia insist that the United States fight its battles? The Saudis are strongly opposed to the governments in Syria and Iran so they expect the US to attack. It is their neighborhood, why don’t they fight their own wars? "

What is Libertarianism?

"Beltway types like to define libertarianism as 'fiscally conservative and socially tolerant,'" but Lew Rockwell does not — A Definition I Despise. Mr. Rockwell speaks defintievely:

Notice that the state is not mentioned, through the only question worth paying attention to in politics is when is the state allowed to initiate violence or the threat of violence. I’d say never, of course, while others have a different answer. But the entire topic is ignored. And what is fiscal conservatism? The big-spending Reagan? There is no way to tell what this phrase means. As to social tolerance, it has nothing to do with libertarianism, which is a political phiilosophy. Socially tolerant people, and the socially intolerant, can defend liberty. Neither side need call in the police, though I’ve noticed that the tolerant often want the intolerant arrested.

One good definition of libertarianism is offered by Ron Paul: opposition to state intervention in our private lives, in the economy, and in other countries.

Three From Spokane, Mark in Spokane

A great civil libertarian's appreciation of a great anti-federalist, with a reminder that "the people are largely ignorant of their rights under the Constitution, and such ignorance has catastrophic consequences for self-government" — Nat Hentoff on the continuing relevance of founding father George Mason.

A report on "a significant contribution to the study of the unique relationship that the African-American community has had with the constitutional right to keep and bear arms" — The Second Amendment and the African-American community.

A link to "a good post on the similarities between Pope Francis and Russell Kirk on the poisonous nature of ideology" — The Kirkian approach of Pope Francis.

Andrea Corr Performs "Pale Blue Eyes"

Rest in peace — Lou Reed, Rock ’n’ Roll Pioneer, Dies at 71. He was a man who felt free "to contradict his transgressive image by idealizing sweet or old-fashioned values in word or sound."

"Banquet of the Senses - Erotic Madrigals of Claudio Monteverdi" Performed by The Consort of Musicke, Directed by Anthony Rooley

Poor Old Shine Perform "Got Right Now"

Kina Grannis & Marié Digby Perform "The Keeper"

The New Beginning posts these two Hapa girls making beautiful music together — The Keeper - Kina Grannis & Marié Digby.

Turning Japanese?

The New Beginning on a not-so-new trend — Why have young people in Japan stopped having sex? "No sex, no drugs, no wine, no women / No fun, no sin, no you, no wonder it's dark," sang The Vapors in their MCMLXXX hit "Turning Japanese."

News of Local Interest

A mysterious murder a couple of hundred yards from here — Jeffrey Newland 'loved being around people'.

Local historian Jim Memmott reminds us that "the Aqueduct Spring Brewery opened in downtown Rochester in 1819," some "15 years before the city's official start" — Remarkable Rochester: Craft breweries a Rochester tradition.

Bill Kauffman, author of Dispatches from the Muckdog Gazette: A Mostly Affectionate Account of a Small Town's Fight to Survive, would be proud — Batavia Muckdogs are well represented at World Series.

Matthew Papay of Weaverville rightly protests, "I am from North Carolina and the school is blatantly ignoring my rights to express the cultural identity I choose to identify with, even though the school prides itself on how 'culturally diverse' it is" — Confederate flag raises issues, ire at UR.

The Ruth Moody Band Performs "One and Only"

The New Beginning brings us more good music — Ruth Moody- Trouble & Woe. Rather Gillian Welchian, but less moody.

Claudio Monteverdi's Vespro della Beate Vergine Performed by L'Arpeggiata, Raquel Andueza, Hannah Morrison, Gunther Vandeven, Kevin Skelton, Fernando Guimarães, Emiliano Gonzalez-Toro, Jan van Elsacker, Fulvio Bettini, Hubert Claessens, João Fernandes, Directed by Christina Pluhar

The Bankesters Perform "Gypsy Jubilee"

Steve Sailer Again on Gypsies

Gypsy quadroon that I am, I find interesting Steve Sailer's posts on Gypsy culture and the "difficult[y] for countries to take serious steps to reform the predatory Gypsy culture under the prevailing climate of victimism" — Liberalism is freedom for aggression.

The White Stuff

Bring it on — NY could see snow as early as next week.

Claudio Monteverdi's Ohimè, Dov'è il Mio Ben and Georg Friedrich Händel's "Author of Peace" Performed by Nora Fischer, Claron McFadden, Mike Fentross, and Nika Zlataric

The Sigma Male

I first heard about this type of "man living on his own terms with a healthy attitude toward women" from a commenter on Chataeu Heartiste at the beginning of this week, but finding little on the topic in Roissy's archives, I dug elsewhere to gather enough material to compose this post of mine — Σ ♂.

Now, five days later, and using much of the same material I used, Roissy himself has a post of his own, noting that this "Sigma Male would fall somewhere between a Greater Beta and a Lesser Alpha," and, switching to his own nomenclature, suggests that "the Renegade Alpha is a seducer of women first, and a leader of men second, if at all" — The Rise Of The Renegade Alpha. An exceprt:

He thrives in formerly stable cultures that are experiencing paradigm shifts which shake up the old rules and create disincentives to social cooperation. Confusion, ennui, distrust, discord, fear and uncertainty — these are the conditions that craft his playground of poon. Where there is emerging chaos, you will find the reign of the Renegade Alpha.

Those Darlins Perform "Blur the Line" and "Oh God"

Girls

You don't have to be a feminist to find profoundly moving the idea behind this "brief documentary focusing on six young women in different countries around the world" — I Am A Girl. In fact, it might help not to be a feminist. An excerpt from the review:

The six girls chosen came from the United States, Afghanistan, Australia, Cameroon, Cambodia and Papua New Guinea. Some of the girls are still at school. Some did not have the opportunity to study, although the girl from Afghanistan is making a somewhat defiant stance in pursuing her education. For several of the girls the issue of self-confidence is very important, the African American girl from New York City moving out into the world, the young girl in Sydney still at school but having suffered from bipolar disorder and depression. Sexual issues are important for three of the girls.

The young girl from Papua New Guinea, from a village, talks frankly about sexual relationships and permissiveness as well as the severity of her father in disapproving of her behaviour, getting pregnant. Ousted from the house, she goes to the city, marries the young man, gives birth in a long sequence and lives for a happy future. It is the same in the Cameroon except that the girl is Muslim, is a virgin at her marriage, receives instructions, quite severe, especially in subservience to the husband, in preparation for marriage. The ceremonies themselves are very colourful and the girl wants to stay married ‘till death do us part’.

The hardest life is that of the girl in Cambodia. At age 12, her virginity was put on sale and sold for $400 with the man raping her, then offering $100 a month for her to be his mistress. Her mother agrees but asks for an extra $10.00 per month. The mother is poor, dependent on her daughter, not preventing her from living as a prostitute. The young girl herself has a daughter, continually clashes with her mother and her father. With her only prospects being to remain at home as a prostitute or to leave home, she leaves to find a new life.

The film does not aim to find definite conclusions. Rather, it is a series of portraits, a cinema essay focusing on six young women to highlight some of the problems for women in the 21st century, some of the oppression, many of the hopes.

Author of Human Smoke Honored at Home

Nicholson Baker has been added to this list, I read this morning over coffee — Remarkable Rochesterians. The blurb:

From his debut 1988 novel, The Mezzanine, he's earned critical praise for his ability to find significance, amusement and meaning in the small things that occupy a life. (One reviewer calls him a "genial obsessive.") Born in Rochester, he attended School Without Walls and the Eastman School of Music (for a year) before going on to Haverford College. Now living in Maine, he has turned out novels, some controversial, at a steady pace, leading up to his latest, the mysteriously named Traveling Sprinkler.

These I have not read. I did read — and will never forget — his incredible work of non-fiction, one of the best I have ever read, Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization, hailed by reviewers as what "may be the most compelling argument for peace ever assembled," as "one of the most important books you will ever read," as "a testament to the power of an outsider to a field to cause us to rethink conventional notions," as "a much stronger message of peace than mere argument could ever muster," and, finally and most importantly, as "an eloquent and passionate assault on the idea that the deliberate targeting of civilians can ever be justified."

Understanding Our Animal and Fallen Natures

Two video links with much to ponder:

"Making excuses for a hedonistic lifestyle, when one doesn't have to live with the consequences of 'unwanted' pregnancy and the like?" asks The New Beginning, linking to this talk between a John Stuart Mill-style left-libertardian at Reason.com and Sex at Dawn author — Interview with Christopher Ryan.

Chateau Heartiste posts a fun episode of Going Ape "documenting a slew of experiments which demonstrate that the term ‘alpha’ has validity as a descriptor of the top dog in emergent human male hierarchies" — National Geographic Agrees: The Human Alpha Male Is Real.

Neither of these videos is likely to get a nihil obstat from a Catholic blogger, but that does not mean there is not much to learn from both of them. As I comment on the first link, "Amazing how certain uncovering truths about our animal nature can lead smart people so far astray!"

Valerie June Performs "Workin' Woman Blues," "Rain Dance," & "Somebody To Love"

Stumbled across her last week, now she's popping up everywhere.

Top Schools, or Top Students?

Our town's kids are doing well in school; our neighbors', not so much — Upstate School Rankings Put Pittsford First, Rochester Last.

I heard Jonathan Kozol's shuck and jive routine live as an undergrad two decades ago, and bought into The Narrative, but now, a graduate degree in education, more than fifteen years' teaching experience, and two kids later, I do not see kids entering school tabula rasa ready to be filled with knowledge like sponges. Sorry, I'm an IQ realist. You can only work with what they bring to the table. Pittsford, New York is full of smart, successful people. Is it any wonder their genetic offspring are also smart and successful? Sorry, Mr. Kozol, I have become an IQ realist.

Nota bene, this is a statement of reality, not a value statement. Smarts and success are not coequal with wisdom and virtue, and are more often than not opposed to each other. Our society falsely honors smarts and success, rather than wisdom and virtue. To say some individuals possess these former qualities more than others is an affront to polite society, i.e. The Cathedral, whose members falsely think themselves smart and wise, but who have a wrong concept of success and no concept of virtue.

Anti-Christian Attack in the Holy Land

"No human would agree with this," said the said the Very Rev Hosam Naoum of this outrage — Outrage over vandalism of Christian sites in Jerusalem. The attacks appear to have been carried out by "four young Israeli settlers from the West Bank," who were, unsurpisingly, "released without charge until further questioning.

Thomas Tallis' Spem in Alium à 40 Sung by The Sixteen Directed by Harry Christophers with the Laurenscantorij and Guest Singers Directed by Wiecher Mandemaker

Surely, this piece is one the pinnacles, if not the pinnacle, of Western music, pretty much as close to Heaven as we can get on Earth. The text:

Spem in alium nunquam habui
praeter in te, Deus Israel,
qui irasceris et propitius eris,
et omnia peccata hominum
in tribulatione dimittis.
Domine Deus,
creator coeli et terrae
respice humilitatem nostram.
I have never founded my hope
on any other than thee. O God of Israel,
who shalt be angry, and yet be gracious,
and who absolvest all the sins of mankind
in tribulation.
Lord God,
creator of heaven and earth,
be mindful of our lowliness.

Muslim Imam and Catholic Nun on Heaven

Mufti Asif Umar informs us that "one of the pleasures of paradise is maidservants, and ... any type of desire that one wants to fulfill in paradise, one will get to enjoy" — Imam: 'We Can't Imagine' The Beauty Of Paradise After Death. In other words, an orgy awaits the faithful after death.

"Some of my favorite [images] are from the Scriptures, and they are of banquets and of wedding feasts," says Professor Mary Catherine Hilkert, O.P., who also reminds us of "what will be no more; that there'll be no more suffering and tears, and violence will be undone" — Heaven Is Waiting; Hell Is A Different Question, Nun Says. In other words, "the peace that passeth all understanding."

Both I heard this week on my evening commute with this National[ist] Public Radio series — What Comes Next? Conversations On The Afterlife. We have on the one hand a religion for pubescent males and on the other a religion for rational adults, male and female.

Taylor Swift Performs "Mean"

Taylor Swift and the Dark Triad

Chateau Heartiste readers will find this unsurprising — 'Taylor Swift says she needs to change her taste in 'shady bad boys'. "My friends tease me about the fact that if someone seems bad or shady or like they have a secret, I find them incredibly interesting," she said. "It's important to be self-aware about these things because you don't want to end up with that guy."

False Sexual Harassment Charges Claim Another Victim

"Was the saga of Colin McGinn really a clear-cut case of sexual harassment?" asks Katie Roiphe says of a man who "lost his job, his reputation, his income, his stability" — The Philosopher and the Student.

"The Tickling Madonna"

Accompanying Aaron Schuster's piece proposing "tickle as the precarious bridge between a touchy physics and an improbably volatile metaphysics" — A Philosophy of Tickling.

William Graham Sumner

Thomas DiLorenzo remembers "the great libertarian scholar " who wrote "The Conquest of the United States by Spain," titled thus "to denote the fact that the Spanish-American war, an imperialistic war of conquest, was no different from the types of aggressive wars that the old empires of Europe had been waging for centuries" — The Man Who Predicted (in 1899) What America Would Become.

Dr. Ruth Benerito, Rest in Peace

Lew Rockwell notes the passing of a woman who was behind what is "considered one of the most significant technological developments of the 20th century" — One of the Great Benefactors of Mankind.

The Triumph of National Socialist Ethics

Jim Goad notes that "a woman [who] chose to terminate her existence because she was depressed" and "a [who] woman elected to have herself killed because she couldn’t handle the travails of anorexia" were among the "52 completed cases of euthanasia justified solely on psychological grounds" — Softly Putting the Monster to Sleep. "Three quarters of [Belgians] said they support euthanizing children with terminal diseases, even without the child’s consent, [and a] similar quotient favored euthanizing adults with severe dementia—again, whether or not the demented adult had any choice in the matter."

"Funny how the word 'eugenics' and the name 'Hitler' never arise in these learned yuppie NYT articles," writes the first commenter to Steve Sailer's latest on a theme few dare to take up — Lesbian Eugenics marches on.

Valerie June Performs "Rollin' and Tumblin'" & "Workin' Woman Blues"

Trampled By Turtles Perform "Keys To Paradise," "Victory," "Walt Whitman," "Widower's Heart," "Sorry," "Midnight On The Interstate," & "Alone

Man's Best Friend

The American Conservative's Jonathan Coppage with a reminder that "there is a rich and reasonable middle ground between claiming that dogs have emotions identical to humans and considering them fit for the table" — Are Dogs People, Food, or Friends? Quoting one B.D. McClay:

Dogs and human beings have a particular relationship, one distinctive among domestic animals: even when we work together, we work alongside. The man working with a dog in the field trusts the animal’s independent judgment. Whether that dog is herding sheep, hunting other animals, or sniffing for bombs, we place our trust in the dog’s intelligence and loyalty. We therefore accord them a respect and a place we do not grant to the other animals.

That respect isn’t irrational, because it is founded in the uniqueness of the relationship. You could say the relationship itself could have been formed just as easily with some other animal—pigs, for instance. That might be true, but it’s irrelevant. Denying the existence of the relationship would be the irrational thing to do here. The relationship is a fact, and like all relationships, it comes with duties and privileges. So don’t eat dogs.

Agreed, even after having lived in Asia for fifteen years. Sannakji I ate. Whale meat I ate. Dog meat I did not. Still, I do not condemn it. By whatever accident of history, in the East, Man never developed the relationship with Dog that Mr. McClay describes, to both's misfortune.

J. S. Bach's "Gottes Zeit Ist die Allerbeste Zeit" Performed by Els Bongers, Elisabeth von Magnus, Lothar Odinius, Klaus Mertens, and The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir, Directed by Ton Koopman

Σ ♂

Stopping in at Chateau Heartiste last night, I overheard fellow traveler Jostein speak of a fellow male as "a sigma in the more nuanced Alpha-Sigma-Beta-Delta-Gamma-Omega model," "a man living on his own terms with a healthy attitude toward women." Intrigued, I had to dig deeper. The Alpha Male & Beta Male dichotomy, while of obvious use, always seems a bit simplistic to me, as I didn't seem to fit into either camp.

Roissy has not said much on this breed of male, but Alpha Game has, suggesting that "the stark division of men into successful alphas and unsuccessful betas is too simplistic and reflects an artificial limitation on the broad applicability of Game beyond the sexual imperative" in this neat post — The socio-sexual hierarchy. Let's look at two of his definitions:

Alpha: The alpha is the tall, good-looking guy who is the center of both male and female attention. The classic star of the football team who is dating the prettiest cheerleader. The successful business executive with the beautiful, stylish, blonde, size zero wife. All the women are attracted to him, while all the men want to be him, or at least be his friend. At a social gathering like a party, he's usually the loud, charismatic guy telling self-flattering stories to a group of attractive women who are listening with interest. However, alphas are only interested in women to the extent that they exist for the alpha's gratification, physical and psychological, they are actually more concerned with their overall group status.

Sigma: The outsider who doesn't play the social game and manage [sic] to win at it anyhow. The sigma is hated by alphas because sigmas are the only men who don't accept or at least acknowledge, however grudgingly, their social dominance. (NB: Alphas absolutely hate to be laughed at and a sigma can often enrage an alpha by doing nothing more than smiling at him.) Everyone else is vaguely confused by them. In a social situation, the sigma is the man who stops in briefly to say hello to a few friends accompanied by a Tier 1 girl that no one has ever seen before. Sigmas like women, but tend to be contemptuous of them. They are usually considered to be strange. Gammas often like to think they are sigmas, failing to understand that sigmas are not social rejects, they are at the top of the social hierarchy despite their refusal to play by its rules.

Two readers to that blog have reported sightings of this creature, which seems to drive certain women (probably smarts ones) a bit wild, reported on in these posts — Alpha Mail: Sigma spotting and Alpha Mail: Stalking the Sigma.

The Red Pill Room furthers this last post with some advice for the gals interested in these "uncommonly intriguing mates" — Girl Game: Stalking the Wild Sigma. An excerpt:

Sigmas are the Gandalfs, the Merlins, the Spocks. They are the men of skill and quiet, men of deep thought and calculation who seek not their own aggrandizement (although they have powerful egos) but the prosperity and success of themselves and those around them. A Sigma who has mastered himself often turns toward using his talents to a greater goal, inspiring people with his passion and persuading them with his reason.

A blog titled Rise of the Sigma Male is dedicated the this subspecies; two helpful posts — Alpha Male vs. Sigma Male and Sigma Male Traits.

"Everything about this photo is terrifying!"

Eighteen more terrifying images here — 19 Deeply Horrifying Vintage Halloween Costumes.

Sarah Jarosz with Jerry Douglas and the Transatlantic Sessions House Band Perform Bob Dylan's "Ring Them Bells"

Ring them bells, ye heathen
From the city that dreams
Ring them bells from the sanctuaries
’Cross the valleys and streams
For they’re deep and they’re wide
And the world’s on its side
And time is running backwards
And so is the bride

Ring them bells St. Peter
Where the four winds blow
Ring them bells with an iron hand
So the people will know
Oh it’s rush hour now
On the wheel and the plow
And the sun is going down
Upon the sacred cow

Ring them bells Sweet Martha
For the poor man’s son
Ring them bells so the world will know
That God is one

Oh the shepherd is asleep
Where the willows weep
And the mountains are filled
With lost sheep

Ring them bells for the blind and the deaf
Ring them bells for all of us who are left
Ring them bells for the chosen few
Who will judge the many when the game is through
Ring them bells, for the time that flies
For the child that cries
When innocence dies

Ring them bells St. Catherine
From the top of the room
Ring them from the fortress
For the lilies that bloom
Oh the lines are long
And the fighting is strong
And they’re breaking down the distance
Between right and wrong

Saint Catherine's

A report from one of Christendom's holiest sites, which "marks the spot where Moses fell down on his knees before a burning bush and talked to God" — Ancient monastery has few visitors amid Sinai unrest, but Bedouin neighbors protect it.

Russia Today on the Execution of Miriam Carey

RT proves itself again an invaluable source for news and commentary about these United States — Capitol Punishment: Unarmed mom with health issues gunned down by DC Police and ‘Not how we do it in New York’: Ex-NYPD cop questions sister's killing by Capitol police and Capitol Hill car chase was 'another senseless killing by the police'.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Miriam Carey, rest in peace.

Steep Canyon Rangers Perform "Graveyard Fields"

An instrumental number "named after a place back in North Carolina up on the Blue Ridge Parkway," terminus of our family vacay this past summer — The Cesspool of Sin in the Great Blue Hills of God. Didn't make it there, but it sounds like it's near Skinny Dip Falls.

"If they gave us Lincoln, it's only fair that we gave them Lenin."

So writes an interlocutor of mine in an undisclosed neutral nation in the heart of Europe (and close to this blogger's heart, although he has never been there), reporting that "that the Tsar sent his Pacific and Baltic fleets to spend a winter, seven months, in the harbours of San Francisco and New York, with sealed orders to be opened if word came, during the Civil War," "[a]nd that he also told the British that if they entered the war, as both the British and confederacy had banked on, that he would go to war with them," linking to this piece by an author who "graduated Princeton summa cum laude, and got a Fulbright scholarship but is slightly eccentric" — Tarpley at National Press Club for 150th Anniversary of Russian Fleets of 1863.

Writes my friend:

The one thing I've never understood about the Civil War, this way the British and perhaps the French didn't intervene on behalf of the South. Until now I have put it down to the Emancipation proclamation, they always had nagging doubts about why Robert E Lee didn't get the South to preempt its strategic value by manumitting the slaves itself. Now I have my answer: it wouldn't have mattered.

HoneyHoney Perform "Ohio"

The Bushwackers Perform "I Am Australian" & "Limejuice Tub"

Not on this blog have we heard the sounds of Strine, "a syncope, derived from a shortened phonetic rendition of the pronunciation of the word 'Australian' in an exaggerated Broad Australian accent," since this absolutely charming musical post featuring Adelaide's "Banjo Girl" — Taylor Pfeiffer Performs "My Daddy Was a Yodeling Cowboy".

Even if the first tune above descends into some pretty annoying Multikulti mumbo jumbo, both of these musical posts (especially the one linked to) are far more localized, and thus more authentic, than the one to follow.

Gogol Bordello Performs "Malandrino," "My Companjera," "The Other Side of the Rainbow," & "I Just Realized"

An ensemble lead by a fellow Gypsy quadroon, who in the interview says, "The more you tour the world the more you realize that everybody's grandmother is from Romania." Mine, too, but the family name I proudly bear goes back to at least XVIII^th Century America.

I have mixed reviews about these guys. Sure, Gypsy punk is a lot of fun, but is it not just another manifestation of a globalized, deracinated anti-culture?

The New York Times vs. The Daily Mail

Steve Sailer nails it again pointing out that "even though New York Times readers average better reading skills, the average Daily Mail reader winds up better informed because the Daily Mail articles are structured to communicate the key information, while the NYT articles are structured to bury it" — Daily Mail v. NYT smackdown on gypsies in France.

Proof enough in the headlines — Treatment Still Harsh for Roma in France vs. Roma gypsy gang sold their women for stealing skills and children were used like conscripts in a criminal army, French court told at start trial.

(Full disclosure: this blogger is a Gypsy quadroon.)

Shut 'Em Down

Antiwar.com on the federal shutdown — Police State Programs Not Affected by a Government Shutdown and The NSA Deserves a Permanent Shutdown.

Mark Twain and Me

"In the new issue of the Mark Twain Journal, a rare book dealer presents his discovery of an 1861 magazine sketch that offers the first fact-based theory on 'Mark Twain'; it suggests Clemens found his pseudonym in a popular humor journal, then invented the riverboat story to promote his Missouri roots" — A New Theory on "Mark Twain" by Daniel Hernandez. "A slightly unromantic, yet nonetheless redolent theory, it summons a lesser-known part of Twain’s personal character: his proven cunning in respect to his brand."

Three of the American cities I know best, Buffalo, New York, San Francisco, and St. Louis, have a Twain connection, and while in the Far East I re-wrote these two books in simplified English: