Arvo Pärt's Bogoróditse Djévo Sung by The Choir of King's College, Cambridge

On this the eve of the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, a contemporary setting of the Old Church Slavonic version of the Ave Maria by the world's greatest exponent of Holy Minimalism.

Богородице дѣво, радѹйсѧ,
Bogoroditse Djevo, raduisya,
Theotokos Virgin, rejoice,

Благодатнаѧ Марїе,
Blagodatnaya Marie,
Mary full of grace,

Господь съ тобою:
Gospod s' toboyu:
The Lord is with thee.

благословена Ты въ женахъ,
Blagoslovyena tyh v' zhenakh,
Blessed art thou amongst women,

и благословенъ плодъ чрева Твоегω;
Y blagoslovyen plod chreva Tvoyego,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,

якω Спаса родила еси дѹшъ нашихъ.
yako Spasa rodila yesi dush nashikh.
for thou hast borne the Saviour of our souls.

Robert Burns' "Auld Lang Syne" Performed by Rod Paterson, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, and Martyn Bennett

Something from the Transatlantic Sessions to see off Anno Domini MMXVI, Annus Mirabilis

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne*?

For auld lang syne, my jo,
for auld lang syne,
we'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
We twa hae run about the braes,
and pou'd the gowans fine;
But we've wander'd mony a weary fit,
sin' auld lang syne.

We twa hae paidl'd in the burn,
frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar'd
sin' auld lang syne.

Anno Domini MMXVI, Annus Mirabilis

Men of the year Nigel Farage and Donald Trump for their victories in Brexit and the United States presidential election, 2016, the two most auspicious Anglosphere triumphs in living memory.

Something Right About the Honorable Tulsi Gabbard

I first heard the name of the congresswoman from Hawai'i a few weeks ago with this story — Tulsi Gabbard Will Deploy With Fellow Vets to Stand With Standing Rock.

Today, I read again the Democrat's name as having "introduced legislation to curb Pres. Obama’s pro-terrorist policy, calling it the Stop Arming Terrorists bill (H.R. 6405)" — Godless, Shameless Anti-Christian Neocons in the West Should Learn Real Tolerance from Syria’s Pres. Assad. More:

In an outright condemnation of Obama administration’s covert policy of aiding the Takfiri terrorist groups — ISIS and al-Qaeda for the purpose of overthrowing the Syrian regime, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) introduced legislation to curb Pres. Obama’s pro-terrorist policy, calling it the Stop Arming Terrorists bill (H.R. 6405).

Congresswoman Gabbard is a member of the House Armed Services Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee. She has served two tours of duty in the Middle East, and continues her service as a major in the Army National Guard.

In a December 8 press release, Gabbard said, “Under U.S. law it is illegal for any American to provide money or assistance to al-Qaeda, ISIS or other terrorist groups. If you or I gave money, weapons or support to al-Qaeda or ISIS, we would be thrown in jail. Yet the U.S. government has been violating this law for years, quietly supporting allies and partners of al-Qaeda, ISIL, Jabhat Fateh al Sham and other terrorist groups with money, weapons, and intelligence support, in their fight to overthrow the Syrian government.”

Specifically, she named the CIA, saying, “The CIA has also been funneling weapons and money through Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and others who provide direct and indirect support to groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda. This support has allowed al-Qaeda and their fellow terrorist organizations to establish strongholds throughout Syria, including in Aleppo.” Later while addressing U.S. Congress, she didn’t mince her words making similar remarks on the House floor.

My interest piqued, today I learned of "the second time in recent weeks that Gabbard has not signed onto a letter critical of the incoming Trump Administration that was generated by her Democratic colleagues," the first being her not having "signed a letter to President-elect Trump denouncing his selection of white nationalist Stephen Bannon to be 'chief strategist'" and the second reported on in this story — UPDATED: Why didn’t Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard join Democrats in asking Secretary of State to protect State Department employees from Trump Administration?

There's even more right about her, as this shitlib Talking Points Memo, denouncing her for not denouncing "the number of generals Donald Trump is putting in senior cabinet positions," notes — Something Disturbing About Tulsi Gabbard:

Gabbard has something of a dissident stance within the Democratic party. She resigned from the DNC during the primaries over claims of bias against Bernie Sanders. She very conspicuously met with President-elect Trump a couple weeks ago. She's very critical of President Obama's foreign policy which she calls a "neo-con" foreign policy.

Wikipedia tells us that Tulsi Gabbard "is the first American Samoan and the first Hindu member of the United States Congress" and "is a vegetarian and a Hindu who follows Gaudiya Vaishnavism," a.k.a. "Hare Krishna."

About her future political prospects, her being born in American Samoa to a naturalized citizen should not impede her taking the highest office in our land, given its current occupant's birth.

Vladimir Putin and Ronald Reagan

I have often thought that what we American dissidents feel toward the Russian president must be akin to what Russian dissidents felt toward the American president back in the Big '80s.

Such thoughts return with the news that "the Russian leader took the high road" — Putin Stunner: "We Will Not Expel Anyone; We Refuse To Sink To 'Kitchen' Diplomacy".

They return with Father of Reaganomics "Paul Craig Roberts address[ing] the common misconception that Ronald Reagan sought to break the Soviet Union and win the Cold War rather than end it" — The myth of the Cold War.

And they make these asinine statments from the president eject seem even more moronic — Obama: "Ronald Reagan Would Roll Over In His Grave" That A Third Of Republicans Approve Of Putin. Would Mr. Reagan have wanted us to hate Russia in "We've-always-been-at-war-with-Eastasia perpetuity?

Seneca White Deer and Virginia Dare

One of my favorite local stories is in the news again — NY county to retain ownership of Army Depot where white deer live for 2 years. An excuse to rebublich a favorite post of mine:

Do Virginia Dare's Descendants Survive in the Finger Lakes?


Seneca white deer are in the news today — White deer group plans to bid on old Army Depot. We learn of the "11th-hour fundraising campaign to save the world's largest herd of white deer as well as the Cold War military installations" by "turning the unique 7,000-acre facility into a world class eco-tourism and military park." Seneca White Deer, Inc., the "group of conservationists and history buffs," is taking donations online.

This story had me revisiting some recent fanciful speculations regarding the old colonial legend about Virginia Dare, the first white child born in what are today these united States in the Roanoke Colony, being turned into a white doe by an Indian shaman. [See Virginia Dare, The White Doe.] Miss Dare was born in 1587. If she had indeed been turned into a white doe, this would have likely occurred when she was an adolescent or young adult, say, in the first decade of the XVII^th Century.

Could her cervine descendants, or her spirit as the Indian version of the legend has it, have passed from sanctuary among the Croatan, who perished as a people to disease, to the Tuscarora people, and traveled north with them after the Tuscarora War to settle in Iroquois and later become the sixth nation of their confederacy?

This would be yet another connection between the Great State of North Carolina and Upstate New York, the two outposts of Anti-Federalism in the late XVIII^th Century. I made two trips south to the state two years ago, two months apart; here are my reports — Back From Dixie and Back in W.N.Y. From W.N.C.. On the former trip, one of the highlights occurred at the Elizabethan Gardens, where I paid homage to the incredibly lovely Virginia Dare Statue.

And back to the subject of our post, a site dedicated to her memory, VDARE, recently posted, albeit early, this lovely Christmas image for the upcoming Giving Tuesday:


Please consider participating his Tuesday by giving to Seneca White Deer, Inc. and VDARE.

The Oh Hellos Perform "Prelude," "Bitter Water," "Eat You Alive," "Lay Me Down," "There Beneath," "Exeunt," "This Will End," "Hello My Old Heart," "Like the Dawn," "I Was Wrong," "Caesar," "Soldier Poet King," "Dear Wormwood," "The Truth is a Cave," "Valley (Reprise)," "I Have Made Mistakes," "The Lament of Eustace Scrubb," & "Trees"

As I suspected watching their Christmas special*, and as the titles of these tracks and their album "Dear Wormwood" as well as the interspersed interviews in the above concert suggest, this band (a brother-sister duo from San Marcos, Texas with backers, really), is Christian. Perhaps the End Times are upon us, because this is the first time that I have found Contemporary Christian Music™ to be anything other than "ghastly, insipid, uninspired, brain draining, and horrible in every way."

*The Oh Hellos Perform "Deck The Halls," "Silent Night, Holy Night" "Jingle Bells," & "Every Bell On Earth Will Ring".

Cartoon Canonizations

For the truth on this matter, see Paragraph #1022 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which teaches that each of us "receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven-through a purification or immediately, -- or immediate and everlasting damnation."

The bellicose Friendly Atheist, as unamicable as any of his coreligionists, is outraged by a fundagelical's take on this doctrine, as mischaracterized here — Franklin Graham: Carrie Fisher and George Michael Are in Hell (Unless They Accepted Jesus). Says the preacherman, making no reference to the homosexuality of the former or the drug-abuse and promiscuity of the latter, "I hope each of these people had made that all-important decision before they took their last breath on earth." For hoping for the greatest reward imaginable for two public sinners, without even reference to their sin, he is lambasted.

For the fullness of the faith on this matter, see Paragraph #1032 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on "the practice of prayer for the dead." One might offer this Prayer for the Poor Souls in Purgatory.

My Bubba Perform "Ghost Sweat"

Speaking of lovely lasses, that Guðbjörg Tómasdóttir, the Icelandic half of this duo, sure is one.

Lisa Hannigan Performs "Little Bird," "Fall," "Prayer for the Dying," "O Sleep," "We, the Drowned," "Passenger," "Snow" & "Anahorish"

Speaking of lovely Irish lasses...

Anúna Sings Michael McGlynn's Arrangement of "The Coventry Carol"

For today's Feast of the Holy Innocents (Childermas), a rendition of the XIV^th Century "Coventry Carol" by an ensemble of lovely Irish lasses.

Lully, lullay, thou little tiny Child,
Bye, bye, lully, lullay.
Lullay, thou little tiny Child,
Bye, bye, lully, lullay.

O sisters too, how may we do,
For to preserve this day
This poor youngling for whom we do sing
Bye, bye, lully, lullay.
Herod, the king, in his raging,
Charged he hath this day
His men of might, in his own sight,
All young children to slay.

That woe is me, poor Child for Thee!
And ever mourn and sigh,
For thy parting neither say nor sing,
Bye, bye, lully, lullay.

God Preserve His Excellency Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin

"Difensor occidens" is the title rightly bestowed on him by Vox Populi for these fine words:

A further challenge for the national Russian identity is connected to the processes we observe outside of Russia. They include foreign policy, moral, and other aspects. We see that many Euro-Atlantic states have taken the way where they deny or reject their own roots, including their Christian roots which form the basis of Western civilization.

In these countries, the moral basis and any traditional identity are being denied - national, religious, cultural, and even gender identities are being denied or relativised. There, politics treats a family with many children as juridically equal to a homosexual partnership; faith in God is equal to faith in Satan. The excesses and exaggerations of political correctness in these countries indeed leads to serious consideration for the legitimization of parties that promote the propaganda of paedophilia.

The people in many European states are actually ashamed of their religious affiliations and are indeed frightened to speak about them. Christian holidays and celebrations are abolished or "neutrally" renamed, as if one were ashamed of those Christian holidays. With this method one hides away the deeper moral value of those celebrations.

And these countries try to force this model onto other nations, globally. I am deeply convinced that this is a direct way to the degradation and primitivization of culture. This leds to deeper demographic and moral crisis in the West.

What can be better evidence for the moral crisis of human society in the West than the loss of its reproductive function? And today nearly all "developed" Western countries cannot survive reproductively, not even with the help of migrants.

Without the moral values that are rooted in Christianity and other world religions, without rules and moral values which have formed, and been developed, over millennia, people will inevitably lose their human dignity and become brutes. And we think it is right and natural to defend and preserve these Christian moral values.

One has to respect the right of every minority to self-determination, but at the same time there cannot and must not be any doubt about the rights of the majority.

At the same time as this process plays out at a national level in the West, we observe on an international level the attempts to create a unipolar, unified model of the world, to relativise and remove institutions of international rights and national sovereignty. In such a unipolar, unified world there is no place for sovereign states. Such a world needs merely vassals.

From a historical perspective, such a unipolar world would mean the surrender of one's own identity and of God-created diversity.

Amen. His speech "illustrates very clearly why the globalists and the anti-Western media are so desperate to attack both him and Russia," writes Vox continuing, "No wonder they hate and fear him so. He is a true nationalist who is not afraid to stand up in defense of both Christianity and the West... and he has nukes."

"Bosch Year 2016"

I am afraid I was among those who missed the "quincentenary celebration of the death of the late-medieval Dutch master known for his surrealistic images of the hereafter, and particularly for the fantastical hybrid demons that populate his hell," so, to make amends, I am posting some images from Old Gray Lady's review of several books the quincentenary has produced — Painting Damnation: Celebrating 500 Years of Bosch. An account of one of them:

Dutch novelist Cees Nooteboom, invited to appear in a documentary to be broadcast in Bosch Year, uses the occasion to take a personal tour of Bosch paintings in various European museums. He is granted exceptional access to “The Garden of Earthly Delights” at the Prado, and follows up with trips to the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam and the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent, among other locations of Bosch masterpieces.

The resulting slim volume of meandering, loosely philosophical observations is really an extended essay with five postscripts printed in a large font, illustrated with details of key paintings, in which he puzzles over Bosch’s imagery, in awe of the sheer originality and complexity. “Now that I am standing close to them, the abundance of details assaults me,” he writes. “I would need a year merely to see everything, let alone to penetrate within.”

Boxing Day in Upstate New York

Reports from Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo respectively — Police respond to fights, disturbances at malls across US, Henrietta, Greece mall brawls among many across country & 10 arrested, including teen with handgun, for brawl at another Upstate NY mall.

Two analyses, the first citing the low impulse control and time preference of populations who "get gift cards for Christmas, and then they must immediately go to the mall and redeem them," followed "somebody remember[ing] that somebody else dissed yet someone else for some dumbass reason, and then the fists start flying" — A New American Tradition: Boxing Day & Flash Mobs In Malls In 9 States–Police Blame “Social Media” Because You’re Not Allowed To Blame Blacks.

Son House Performs "Preachin' Blues"

A stocking stuffer introduced me to the one-time Rochester resident's hilariously irreverent song:

Yes, I'm gonna get me religion
I'm gonna join the Baptist Church
Yes, I'm gonna get me religion
I'm gonna join the Baptist Church
You know I wanna be a Baptist preacher
Just so I won't have to work

One deacon jumped up and he began to grin
One deacon jumped up and he began to grin
You know he said, "One thing, elder I believe
I'll go back to barrelhousin' again"

One sister jumped up and she began to shout
One sister jumped up and she began to shout
"You know I'm glad this corn liquor's goin' out"

Another deacon jumped up and said, "Why don't ya hush?"
Another deacon jumped up and said, "Why don't ya hush?
You know you drink corn liquor and your lie's a horrible stink"

One sister jumped up and she began to shout
One sister jumped up and she began to shout
"I believe I can tell y'all what it's all about"

Another sister jumped up, she said, "Why don't ya hush?"
Another sister jumped up, she said, "Why don't ya hush?
You know he's abandoned, and you outta hush your fuss"

I was in the pulpit, I's jumpin' up and down
I was in the pulpit, I's jumpin' up and down
My sisters in the corner, they're hollerin' Alabama bound

Grabbed up my suitcase and I took off down the road
Grabbed up my suitcase and I took off down the road
I said, "Farewell church, may the good Lord bless your soul"

You know I wish I had a heaven of my own
You know I wish I had a heaven of my own
I'd give all my women a good ole happy home

I'm gonna preach these blues
And I'm gonna choose my seat and sit down
I'm gonna preach these blues
And I'm gonna choose my seat and sit down
But, when the Spirit comes, I want you to

"The Coventry Carol" Sung by The Choir of King's College, Cambridge

For tomorrow's Feast of the Holy Innocents (Childermas), the XVI^th Century Coventry Carol (its original, not "Appalachian" variant), a "haunting carol representing a mother's lament for her doomed child" during "the Massacre of the Innocents, in which Herod ordered all male infants under the age of two in Bethlehem to be killed."

Lully, lullay, thou little tiny Child,
Bye, bye, lully, lullay.
Lullay, thou little tiny Child,
Bye, bye, lully, lullay.

O sisters too, how may we do,
For to preserve this day
This poor youngling for whom we do sing
Bye, bye, lully, lullay.
Herod, the king, in his raging,
Charged he hath this day
His men of might, in his own sight,
All young children to slay.

That woe is me, poor Child for Thee!
And ever mourn and sigh,
For thy parting neither say nor sing,
Bye, bye, lully, lullay.

Lady Godiva and the Hajnal Line

Coventry always makes me think of Lady Godiva, delightfully imagined above in all her glory and modesty by Pre-Raphaelite John Collier, who, in a tax-protest topping even our Boston Tea Party, "rode naked – covered only in her long hair – through the streets of Coventry to gain a remission of the oppressive taxation that her husband imposed on his tenants."

Manosphere fundamentalists might be appalled at her proto-feminist defiance of her husband, Leofric, Earl of Mercia, no matter how just. Methinks, though, that such uppity women are part and parcel to life behind the Hajnal line, where the Western European marriage pattern dominates, and where, beginning in Antiquity, the greatest civilization the planet would ever know has flourished. It might just be that this flourishing correlates to the complementarianism, which the "gender-left" mistakes for chauvinism and perverts to egalitarianism, allowed to develop under these circumstances like nowhere else. I recall once stumbling across an online White or Nordic nationalist manifesto that implied as much.

Drean Wife Perform "Lolita," "Fire," "Take It Back," "Kids," "Somebody," "FUU" & "Hey Heartbreaker"

Almost as fun as these gals — Kælan Mikla Perform "Kælan Mikla," "Mánadans," "Lítil Dýr," "Ekkert Nema Ég" & "Ætli Það Sé Óhollt Að Láta Sig Dreyma".

Adia Victoria Performs "Mortimer's Blues," "Dead Eyes," "Head Rot" & "Horrible Weather"

Heard on these pages before — Adia Victoria Performs "Stuck In The South," "And Then You Die" & "Heathen".

Wilco's Schmilco

Pitchfork's Sam Sodomsky calls Wilco's Schmilco, with its with its cover reminiscent of one of Black Flag's, "a largely acoustic affair laden with sweet melodies, autumnal production, and childhood memories that stop just short of nostalgic" — Wilco: Schmilco. Writes the reviewer:

The songs on Schmilco are wistful and quaint, zooming in on bittersweet moments with a novelistic eye for detail. In “Normal American Kids,” Tweedy recounts a suburban adolescence spent awkward, angsty, and stoned.

Indeed. Getting the album on vinyl, under the tree, even though I had picked it out, brought back adolescent vinyl memories of Pink Floyd's The Wall, gift from my granny, and Hüsker Dü's Zen Arcade, a mail-order gift from SST Records to myself, two double albums that invited me to pour over the lyrics and the art in a way the CD's, even nicely packaged box sets, never would.

Vox Day's Habits of Exceptional Minds

"There are a few observations I have made over the years that are of limited utility in differentiating between what I think of as 'very smart' vs 'brilliant,'" writes Vox Populi in post delineating these observations — The IQ delta.

Noting that these "terms themselves are meaningless and entirely subjective here, to put it in terms the quantitatively minded can accept," Vox simplifies, "let's call them VHIQ vs UHIQ for the time being, with the understanding that what applies to the VHIQ also applies to midwits and average minds, whereas what applies to UHIQ does not." Here they are:

• VHIQ inclines towards binary either/or thinking and taking sides. UHIQ inclines towards probabilistic thinking and balancing between contradictory possibilities.
• VHIQ seeks understanding towards application or justification, UHIQ seeks understanding towards holistic understanding.
• VHIQ refines the original thought of others, UHIQ synthesizes multiple original thoughts.
• VHIQ rationalizes logical conclusions, UHIQ accepts logical conclusions. This is ironic because VHIQ considers itself to be highly logical, UHIQ considers itself to be investigative.
• VHIQ recognizes the truths in the works of the great thinkers of the past and applies them. UHIQ recognizes the flaws in the thinking of the great thinkers of the past and explores them.
• VHIQ usually spots logical flaws in an argument. UHIQ usually senses them.
• VHIQ enjoys pedantry. UHIQ hates it. Both are capable of utilizing it at will.
• VHIQ is uncomfortable with chaos and seeks to impose order on it, even if none exists. UHIQ is comfortable with chaos and seeks to recognize patterns in it.
• VHIQ is spergey and egocentric. UHIQ is holistic and solipsistic.
• VHIQ will die on a conceptual hill. UHIQ surrenders at the first reasonable show of force.
• VHIQ attempts to rationalize its errors. UHIQ sees no point in hesitating to admit them.
• VHIQ seeks to prove the correctness of its case. UHIQ doesn't believe in the legitimacy of the jury.
• VHIQ believes in the unique power of SCIENCE. UHIQ sees science as a conceptual framework of limited utility.
• VHIQ seeks to rank and order things. UHIQ seeks to recognize and articulate concepts.
• VHIQ is competitive. UHIQ doesn't keep score.
• VHIQ asks "how can this be used?" UHIQ asks "what does this mean?"

It is interesting to note that many of these UHIQ habits, notably the latter half, are misconstrued by VHIQ as signs of intellectual weakness, thus falsely convincing VHIQ of the powers of its own intellect.

He follows the above post with an example critiquing tne work of a very influential public intellectual — The IQ delta and the Last Man.

The Bills Perform "Good King Wenceslas"

Today, we celebrate the Feast of Saint Stephen, Protomartyr.

Get the Government Out of Our Bathrooms!

"Conservatism is dead," says Vox Populi, liking to this article — A Conservative Defense of Transgender Rights. Of course, National Review author Josh Gelernter tries to suck the cuckservative readership in with this bait-and-switch:

On the American political spectrum, conservatism is the mind-your-own-business ideology. I know smoking is unhealthy, but I enjoy smoking, and my health is none of your business. I know motorcycles can be dangerous, but I like the wind in my hair; whether or not I wear a helmet is none of your business. I realize that fireworks can blow up before they’re supposed to, but they’re fun and my fingers are none of your business. Don’t tell me what sort of car to drive, or what kind of light bulb I can buy, or what kind of milk I can drink, or how to raise my kids.

There is no right to a bathroom, and the government has no right to impose on private businesses an obligation to provide bathrooms for any or all 58 genders. Let businesses and their customers decide.

Virtue Signaling Explained

Château Heartiste links to this "very dank social psychology study [that] has found evidence that virtue signaling is real, and is distinct from virtue alone" — Selfish or selfless? On the signal value of emotion in altruistic behavior. Roissy's translation: “shitlib virtue signaling is self-serving because it feels good and because the more emotionally incontinent the signaling, the better others judge the signaler’s moral character.” He elabortates:

Virtue signaling isn’t an empty insult; it has teeth (and really gets under the skin of shitlibs accused of it) precisely because virtue signaling provides emotional and reputational rewards to shitlibs with or without attachment to actual virtuous deeds.

Very true. Libruls, shitlibs, liberasts, or whatever else you want to call them, can be understood in religious terms as heretics, as the great Hilaire Belloc in The Great Heresies, understood them:

The enemy which the Faith now has to meet, and which may be called "The Modern Attack," is a wholesale assault upon the fundamentals of the Faith - upon the very existence of the Faith. And the enemy now advancing against us is increasingly conscious of the fact that there can be no question of neutrality. The forces now opposed to the Faith design to destroy. The battle is henceforward engaged upon a definite line of cleavage, involving the survival or destruction of the Catholic Church. And all - not a portion - of its philosophy.

Virtue signalling is their pathetic perversion of the vice of spiritual pride.

Morten Lauridsen's O Magnum Mysterium Sung by Winchester Cathedral Choir

O magnum mysterium,
et admirabile sacramentum,
ut animalia viderent
Dominum natum,
jacentem in præsepio!
Beata Virgo, cujus viscera
meruerunt portare
Dominum Christum.
Alleluia.
O great mystery,
and wonderful sacrament,
that animals should see
the new-born Lord,
lying in their manger!
Blessed is the Virgin whose womb
was worthy to bear
Christ the Lord.
Alleluia!

The Oh Hellos Perform "Deck The Halls," "Silent Night, Holy Night" "Jingle Bells," & "Every Bell On Earth Will Ring"

Russo-American Peace in Our Time

Vladimir Putin: ‘nobody, except us, believed in a Donald Trump victory’

Donald Trump receives letter from Putin, says ‘his thoughts are so correct’

Politically Incorrect Western New York

"With regard to restrooms, we have no policy that governs their use, nor have we felt the need to implement one," said a statement from the Rochester-based company — Wegmans criticized for NC store expansion after 'bathroom bill' repeal failure. "Like any issue, when a concern is raised about the use of restrooms we use common sense and courtesy to resolve it."

"And there's other places where the fans don't agree as much - Buffalo in particular was one where that was very evident," said the ass-clown — 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick said Buffalo Bills fans treated him worse than others. The story ends, "The Bills beat Kaepernick and the 49ers 45-16 in that game."

"I’d like (Michelle Obama) to return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla" — Carl Paladino's 'gorilla' remark spurs outrage.

Roberta Flack Performs "Back Together Again"

Another special dedication to the would-be first couple — EXCLUSIVE: She's STILL with her - Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin are pictured together for the first time since losing election, after a five-hour meeting at the failed candidate's New York office.

Leyla McCalla Performs "A Day for the Hunter, a Day for the Prey"

Formerly of the Carolina Chocolate Drops.

A Real War On Christmas

In Germany, by those to whom she gave asylum — German-Iraqi boy, 12, 'tried to bomb Christmas market' & Germany Reels as Truck Kills 12 at Berlin Christmas Market. "German media including Die Welt newspaper reported that the driver was a refugee from Pakistan."

Timeless Haircuts

Frosm a post of mine titled "Hipsters Against Hitler," the herioic Sophie Scholl and Willi Graf of the White Rose (Weiße Rose), in response to Steve Sailer's "You have to admit that the Young Stalin Haircut is pretty great" — Bolshy Haircut.

Neil Sedaka Performs "Breaking Up Is Hard to do"

Special dedication to the would-be first couple — Hillary Blames Huma Abedin for E-mail Scandal.

Jackie Evancho Sings G.F. Handel's Ombra Mai Fu

A video five years before she is to sing at the God-Emperor Ascendant's coronation — Teen Jackie Evancho first singer confirmed for Trump inauguration.

America's First Daughter

Hereditary goddess-empress could be her role — With Ivanka Trump, role of first daughter may change.

"Are They Potential Allies?"

American Renaissance's Chris Roberts on the "segment of the Bernie Sanders wing of the Left, socialists who oppose racial identity politics generally and the shaming of poor whites in particular" — The Anti-Anti-White Left. An excerpt:

I call them the anti-anti-white Left. They are vehemently opposed to the Clinton family and mainstream Democratic figures such as Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid—whom they consider part of the exploiting class—and they attack capitalism, war, and almost every liberal pundit.

Needless to say, they are not race realists or white advocates, and they openly abhor what they call “racism.” However, they are so preoccupied with economics and class that they have little respect for theories about “white privilege,” or “authoritarian personalities.” Anti-anti-white socialists despise elite whites who live in “whiteopias” but call working class whites “racists,” and who promote economic programs like NAFTA that benefit them but hurt the working class.

Derinkuyu

"Kitchens, stables, churches, tombs, communal rooms and schools were all part of the hidden community" — The incredible thousand-year-old UNDERGROUND 18-storey city that could house 20,000 people and was discovered by chance when a man was doing DIY on his house in Turkey.

Psilocybin

Dr. Joseph Mercola's latest — Magic Mushrooms May Hold Key to Long-Term Anxiety Relief in Clinical Settings. Friends and I once saw Quetzalcoatl in the clouds thanks to them.

George Dyson's "Magnificat from Evening Service in D" Performed by the Georgia Boy Choir

To accompany this fascinating interview with the composer's father, the great physicist Freeman Dyson, who describes himself as "a practicing Christian, though not a believer," and who "slipped through the cracks" by avoiding "the Ph.D. system" — My Life with the Physics Dream Team.

The Anti-Trump CIA Coup d’État Plot

"The CIA is up to its old tricks: overthrowing a democratically elected government," begins Justin Raimondo, continuing, "Only this time it’s our government" — Stop the CIA Coup.

"It’s pure evil, and always has been," links Lew Rockwell, reminding us that "it killed JFK the last time its power was threatened" — Smash the CIA. Hopefully, Mr. Rockwell links to the "sort of internal gov’t dissent [that] is good news for the rest of us" — FBI Challenges CIA.

"The Churches’ Bans on Consanguineous Marriages, Kin-Networks and Democracy"

Steve Sailer quotes a research paper of that title, identifying "countries with strong extended families as characterized by a high level of cousin marriages exhibit a weak rule of law and are more likely autocratic," and "[u]sing the variation in the duration and extent of the Eastern and Western Churches’ bans on consanguineous marriages as instrumental variables, reveals highly significant point estimates of the percentage of cousin marriage on an index of democracy" — The Fall of Cousin Marriage and the Rise of the West.

Writes Mr. Sailer:

On the other hand, Protestantism wasn’t always against cousin marriage: e.g., Charles Darwin married his Wedgwood first cousin. But I don’t know how common this was. I believe that it was American eugenicists who launched the modern aversion toward cousin marriage in Protestant countries.

This could be a new chapter in a revised edition of Thomas E. Woods' tome How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization.

A Victory Against the Federal Government

"A century after the first commercial dam was built on the St. Regis River, blocking the spawning runs of salmon and sturgeon, the stream once central to the traditional culture of New York's Mohawk Tribe is flowing freely once again" — Mohawks become first tribe to take down a federal dam.

What Kind of "White Supremacist" Are You?

A segment in the penultimate edition of Radio Derb looks at the pejorative du jour — Who's a white supremacist? In toto:

Columbia linguistics professor John McWhorter is a specimen of that very rare creature, a rational liberal. Prof McWhorter had an article in Time magazine, November 29th, chewing over the use and misuse of the term "white supremacist."

I'm going to leave you to read the article for yourselves — it's on the internet at time.com. Here in this segment I'm just going to indulge myself in a short rumination on that same term, "white supremacist."

Ngram says that the phrase "white supremacist" was unknown until the 1940s, then underwent a leisurely rise in frequency through to the mid-1980s, then took off like a rocket and is still climbing fast.

I've always been annoyed by the term because of its ambiguity. What is a white supremacist supposed to be, actually? I know a lot of people who regularly get called "white supremacists," and they believe different things.

So here's what I'll do. I'll take a stroll along the spectrum of opinions the holding of which will get you called a "white supremacist" by somebody, somewhere. Ready to stroll? Let's stroll.

The least racialistic of those opinions just argues, with no prejudice to any other race, that the U.S.A. has all the people it needs, and should have a complete moratorium on immigration until the huge intakes of the past fifty years have been assimilated into a common American identity.

The accurate term for such a person would be "strong immigration restrictionist"; but Rachel Maddow, Jamelle Bouie, probably the New York Times, and likely the Wall Street Journal too, would call him (or her) a "white supremacist."

Proceeding along the spectrum, there are people who deduce from basic principles of biology, perhaps falsely, that localized groups of humans that have bred mostly among themselves for many, many generations will have distinctive group characteristics on heritable traits. That would include traits like intelligence and the various dimensions of personality, which are all heritable to some degree.

These people get called "white supremacists," too, even though few of them — none at all, to my knowledge — think that white Europeans cornered all the most desirable traits. If you ask them about intelligence, for example, they'll tell you that East Asians come out on top, with Whites next, West and South Asians next, then Amerindians, then Africans, then Australian aborigines.

A better descriptor for these people would be the one I tried to float in We Are Doomed: biologians.

There's a subset in that group that I think fairly can be called "white supremacists." Those are people who argue that, yes, East Asians may come out best on raw smarts, but they are short on some of the personality traits that help people cohere into stable, free societies. Whites, these folk argue, are in a "Goldilocks" position: enough smarts to build modern civilizations, and the right mix of personality traits to keep them open and free, at least most of the time, or at very least more of the time than is the case with other races.

For this "Goldilocks" view, I think "white supremacist" is not an unfair descriptor. It loses some of its vituperative power in this case, though, because the "Goldilocks" view belongs to the category of things that might be true. We don't know anything like enough about the underlying science to say whether or not it is true, but it's not illogical or preposterous.

Believing things in that category doesn't make you a bad person, though it may turn out that you are honestly mistaken.

Some other people will eschew biology, or have no interest in it, but just appeal to simple empirical observation. At the present stage of human development, they'll say, nations that are established, mostly populated, and mostly run by people of white-European extraction are the best nations to live in.

This opinion is "white supremacist" at least implicitly. The problem here is that it is an opinion very widely held by nonwhites. Those boatloads of black Africans and brown west and south Asians heading north across the Mediterranean all seem to believe it, on the Revealed Preference principle. Likewise American blacks, vanishingly few of whom display any desire to flee from the horrid racism of U.S. society to Haiti, or Ghana, or Chad.

A lot of East Asians believe it, too. The current issue of The Economist has an article on the Chinese Communist Party's efforts to shut down so-called "international schools": that is, private high schools teaching an international curriculum for kids planning to study abroad.

The angle is of course that these schools are poisoning the minds of Chinese youngsters with Western liberalism. The problem for the government campaign against them is that they are very popular with China's big and fast-growing middle class. Quote from The Economist:

It is not just the super-rich who have the aspiration or means to send their offspring abroad to attend university. Some 57 percent of Chinese parents would like to do so if they could afford it, according to the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

End quote. As always in matters of race, the level of hypocrisy here is very high. The next sentence is this one, quote:

Even [Chinese President Xi Jinping] sent his daughter to Harvard, where she studied under a pseudonym.

End quote.

If you head out further along the spectrum of opinions that regularly get called "white supremacist" you get to people who, without necessarily holding any opinions at all about the distribution of traits in different races, would just like freedom of association restored so they could live among their own kind, without being forced by law into contact with other races. I can't see any necessary notion of supremacy in that. "White separatist" would be the better term.

Then there are people who are fed up with Western society beating up on white people all the time and blaming them for all the world's ills. Like white separatists, they don't necessarily hold any negative views of other races; they're just tired of hearing their own race insulted. That's white advocacy, not "white supremacy."

Further out on the spectrum you meet people who want a homeland for white people, with other races excluded. The definition of "other races" needs a lot of lawyering there. Jews? Muslims? How about Christian Arabs? … etc., etc.

Leaving the lawyering aside, we're talking here about white nationalists. They want a white nation. They're white nationalists. That's what it means. I can't see any logic in calling them "white supremacists."

And then way further out on the spectrum you get to people who actually wish ill to nonwhites, who would oppress, enslave, or massacre them if in power. These are generally called Neo-Nazis, although that's not very accurate as the actual Nazis counted a lot of whites — notably Jews and Slavs — among the outgroups to be oppressed, etc.

In the fevered imaginations of liberals, all the groups I've worked my way through here nurse malice towards nonwhites. A liberal who's listened to this segment of the podcast probably thinks I do, notwithstanding I've been married for thirty years to a nonwhite; but that just shows you how stupid and immune to reason most liberals are.

Is it fair to call this last, most extreme group "white supremacist"? I'll grudgingly allow that it might be; grudgingly, because I've already passed the phrase as a descriptor for other groups who don't wish any ill to nonwhites. We really need a separate term here. I suggest "white dominationists" for whites who want to boss other races around, or worse.

The opinion categories I've been enumerating are not mutually exclusive. We all hold lots of opinions. An individual might, without contradiction, be both a strong immigration restrictionist and a white separatist; or both a white advocate and a white dominationist. The common thread is that holding any of these opinions will, in today's America, get you tagged as a "white supremacist," whether or not you also hold any of the others.

Well, those are my ruminations — the ruminations of a guy who, like Prof McWhorter, loves language and cares about the precise meaning of words. Hi there, Prof. Do you feel as lonely as I do?

Pinegrove Perform "Need," "Angelina," "Old Friends" & "Waveform"

Blurbist Bob Boilen says, "The New Jersey group's sound feels fresh and scrappy at the same time" with "a spirit of warmheartedness and friendship." I'm reminded of one of my all-time faves:

• Spirit Family Reunion Perform "Climb Up The Corn," "I Am Following The Sound," "Wake Up Rounder," "Don't Be A Liar," "Green Rocky Road," "Put Your Hands Together When You Spin The Wheel," "I Want To Be Relieved," & "I'll Find A Way
• Spirit Family Reunion Perform "Put Your Hands Together When You Spin the Wheel," "Climb Up The Corn," & "The Gazebo Song"
• Spirit Family Reunion Perform "Climb Up the Corn," "Fill My Heart With Love," & "Nighttime In Nevada"
• Spirit Family Reunion Perform "Leave Your Troubles At The Gate," "Green Rocky Road," and "I'll Find A Way"

Pizzagate Primer

Read and decide for yourself — Pizzagate.

Read the comments, too, the best of which says, "If pedophilia, grooming, and child rape are now matters to take lightly as shibboleths of entrance to circles of power, then those circles of power need to be napalmed."

Jack London's The Star Rover

His "sole foray into the realm of science fiction and fantasy" — Astral Travels with Jack London.

This is a deeply eclectic book. It borrows liberally from the forebears of the fantasy genre: fairy stories, Norse legend, Greek myths. But it also manages to include feuding UC Berkeley scientists, “dope fiends,” Neolithic hunter-gatherers, kimchi, and a journalistic exposé of the modern prison system. The bizarre multiplicity is precisely the point. London’s narrative does many things, but it always seems to circle back to the question of how the worlds encompassed within a single consciousness can interfere with the shared reality of modern society.

The Liberal Threat to Science

"My liberal friends sometimes ask me why I don’t devote more of my science journalism to the sins of the Right," begins John Tierney, continuing, "My friends don’t like my answer: because there isn’t much to write about" — The Real War on Science.

Mr. Tierney's article exposes the "two huge threats to science [that] are peculiar to the Left," namely "confirmation bias, the well-documented tendency of people to seek out and accept information that confirms their beliefs and prejudices," and the "dogma [that] has perpetuated a liberal version of creationism: the belief that there has been no evolution in modern humans since they left their ancestral homeland in Africa some 50,000 years ago".

Free Geert Wilders!

As I look to the ancestral homeland I share with Mr. Wilders, Steve Sailer's question today comes to mind — Will Classy "European-American" Replace Downscale "White" in Future Identity Politics?

Upstate Winter Beers

"Winter beers come in (at least) three different styles," writes Don Cazentre — What makes a winter beer? Three Upstate NY varieties (Beer Review). More:

Some are the classic rich and hearty warmers, high in alcohol, usually heavy in malt. Typically, they do not contain added spices.

Others are the overtly "Christmas-y" beers, with loads of holiday spices, like fruitcake in a glass. They can also be rich and strong.

Then there are the beers that are just plain good for a winter's day, with no specific characteristic (or name) to highlight the time of year. They can be warming, without declaring that intention on the label. These are the pleasant surprise finds for winter.

For this review, we take a look at three Upstate beers, one for each of the styles mentioned above. The hearty Genesee Winter Warmer; the spiced Southern Tier 2XMAS, and Ithaca's Midnight Sun (that's the one that doesn't pitch itself as winter beer).

Click on the link for the full reviews.

Aizaz Siddiqui

The name of the "Upstate NY man" charged with this crime — Upstate NY man charged in Binghamton University student hit-and-run death. For fourteen years, I lived in a place called Kyŏngsang-do, but only considered myself a "Kyŏngsang-do Man" half in jest {but fully in sympathy) because of the reactionary nature of that particular part of the country. Does Mr. Siddiqui identify with our values?

None Dare Call It McCarthyism

None save Norman Solomon, that is — McCarthy’s Smiling Ghost: Democrats Point the Finger at Russia. [Cue "Joe McCarthy's Ghost" by Minutemen.]

Minutemen Perform "I Never Gave A Damn," "Corona," "Themselves," "The Red And The Black," "Badges," "I Felt Like A Gringo," "Time," "Green River," "Lost," "Ack, Ack, Ack," "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love," "History Lesson Part 2," "Tour Spiel," & "Little Man With A Gun In His Hand"

"The Minutemen are one of, it not the greatest punk band of all time," rightly states a commenter. Minutemen. Black Flag. Hüsker Dü. Bad Brains. All great.

Margo Price Performs "All American Made," "Four Years Of Chances" & "About To Find Out"

Blurbist Bob Boilen writes:

When I greeted Margo Price in the NPR garage before her Tiny Desk performance, tears were streaming down her face. It was Wednesday morning, Nov. 9, the day after the 2016 election.

No, as you might have suspected from the source, these were not the tears of joy you or I were shedding that glorious morn, The Golden Dawn of the Trump Era. More of Mr. Boilen's boilerplate:

For her — as for many Americans — it was a stunning and bewildering moment in time, a day when life and the everyday took on new meaning. And so when she and her band began to play "All American Made," a song she's sung many times before, those words about America's changes and failures in the 21st century seemed even more powerful.

[....]

As this Tiny Desk progresses, even "Four Years Of Chances," her song of a love gone wrong, feels less about a lousy husband and more about presidential politics. She dedicates her third and final song, "About To Find Out," to Donald Trump; she says it was originally written about a "musician acquaintance of mine who's a complete sociopath." When the song ends, she rips open her red cowboy shirt to reveal a T-shirt with the words "Icky Trump"— a play on the title of The White Stripes' song "Icky Thump," which criticizes the U.S.'s immigration policies. She smiles, wipes a tear away: It seems cathartic, but temporary.

Miss Price's music has been featured on these pages before — Margo Price Performs "Tennessee Song," "Hands of Time," "This Town Gets Around," "Four Years of Chances," & "No Expectations".

You've got to hand it to libruls; they're good for some things, and one of them is sustaining musical culture, be it classical or classic country, and other cultural amenities like museums and coffee shops. I hope the god-emperor will deign to keep some of them around. Of course, it will be prudent to have them registered.

Dana Rohrabacher for Secretary of State

Justin Raimondo locuta est, cause finita est, saying, "From a noninterventionist perspective, Rohrabacher is the best choice of those reportedly in the running" — Dana Rohrabacher for Secretary of State?

A few days ago, I was impressed to learn, as Mr. Raimondo, my pick for Secretary of State in my administration, reports, "that Rohrabacher was offered the deputy Secretary of State position, with the odious John Bolton in the top position, but that Dana refused on the grounds that Bolton’s foreign policy views are in many ways the exact opposite of Trump’s (and his own)."

To his credit, he received this liberast anti-endorsement back in July, whence comes the photo atop this post — Meet The Putin-Loving Congressman Who’s Worried About Fluoride In Our Drinking Water.

The Genesee Brewing Company Keg Christmas Tree

"Several hundred people enjoyed the view from inside and outside the Brew House, some joking that this was Rochester's official Christmas tree" — 400 beer keg Christmas tree in Rochester (photos, video).

Buffalo's Central Terminal, Today, Yesterday, and Tomorrow

Take a tour — Inside Buffalo's Central Terminal, an art deco marvel in decay. What it was — What it looked like Wednesday: Opening Day at Central Terminal, 1929. And what it might be — Plans for Central Terminal hinge on residents as much as rail traffic.

Guillaume Du Fay's Nuper Rosarum Flores, Performed by Sophia Brumfitt, Katherine Hawnt, Jennie Cassidy, Ann Allen, & David Hatcher

A motet, containing the line "hieme licet horrida" ("despite a terrible winter"), composed during the decade mentioned in this story — The coldest decade of the millennium? How the cold 1430s led to famine and disease.

[Original Climate of the Past article — The 1430s: a cold period of extraordinary internal climate variability during the early Spörer Minimum with social and economic impacts in north-western and central Europe.]

Paleoclimatology! Compare the "famine and disease" and "social and economic impacts" above to the flourishing Roman Warm Period and Medieval Warm Period.

Back to the music, Guillaume Du Fay's piece was commissioned for the 1436 completion of the Florence Cathedral, the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, pictured below:

The Decemberists Perform "Down By The Water," "Rox In The Box" & "June Hymn"

Black Linguist (and Confucian Scholar) on the Term "White Supremacy"

"Black Linguist (and Confucian Scholar) on the Term 'Racism'" was the title of a post-election post about self-described "anti-Trumpian" John McWhorter, who now rightly argues that "the term 'white supremacy' has become, of all things, a kind of hate speech" — The Difference Between Racial Bias and White Supremacy. Prof. McWhorter righty says, "It seems that any white person who disagrees with a non-white one’s opinion about race issues is given the label."

Again, Confucius’ Rectification of Names comes to mind:

If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not what is meant, then what must be done remains undone; if this remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate; if justice goes astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion. Hence there must be no arbitrariness in what is said. This matters above everything.

Two Letters That Bring Liberalism Crashing Down

John Craig mentions them — IQ is Unmentionable. An excerpt:

IQ never gets mentioned anymore. Because once you take it into account, the whole edifice of liberal thought comes tumbling down. Once a realistic look at IQ enters the picture, all the talk of how our schools and teachers are failing us looks misguided. All the talk of racism as the explanation for the differences in accomplishment, all the talk of white privilege, all the talk of disparate impact, just look sort of….silly.

As silly as saying that the only reason the men’s weight-lifting records are better than the women’s is because of sexism.

As silly as suggesting that the only reason 64 out of the last 64 finalists in the men’s 100 meter dash at the Olympics have been black is because they had better coaching.

Ignore differences in natural ability, and you’re left with a lot of inexplicable patterns and correlations.

Disraeli Wisdom

Brett and Kate McKay on a "maxim [that] well encapsulates the stiff-upper lipped-ness of the Victorian age, but the timeless wisdom it contains has made it a guiding mantra of powerful, confident, accountability-prizing men up through the modern day" — Never Complain; Never Explain.

What I Learn From My Cat Each Morning

Mike Fitch systematizes — Wake Up Like an Animal: Your Morning Stretching Routine.