In “Gran Torino” (2008), Walter Kowalski (played by Clint Eastwood) scowls when he sees his granddaughter inappropriately dressed, bare midriff and exposed navel piercing, at his wife’s funeral mass.
A victorious line of march had been prolonged above a thousand miles from the rock of Gibraltar to the banks of the Loire; the repetition of an equal space would have carried the Saracens to the confines of Poland and the Highlands of Scotland; the Rhine is not more impassable than the Nile or Euphrates, and the Arabian fleet might have sailed without a naval combat into the mouth of the Thames. Perhaps the interpretation of the Koran would now be taught in the schools of Oxford, and her pulpits might demonstrate to a circumcised people the sanctity and truth of the revelation of Mahomet.
–Edward Gibbon on the Victory of Charles Martel at Poitiers, 732 A.D., in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 52.
Well, Charles Martel smote the Saracens in vain. The knighthood of Europe long ago fought and died to save their homeland and civilization from being overrun by the followers of Mahound. And in our time, the Progressive elite, including its representatives in the government of the Roman Church welcome the paynim in, and even erect their mosques for them, right on the campuses of supposedly Roman Catholic Christian universities.
Georgetown University, which touts itself as the oldest Catholic Jesuit university in the United States, founded in the 1790s, recently completed a major construction project erecting a large mosque on campus.
“On March 18, Georgetown officially opened the Yarrow Mamout Masjid, the first mosque with ablution stations, a spirituality and formation hall and a halal kitchen on a U.S. college campus,” the university stated in a news release.
It opened in 2019 but construction was completed earlier this year to much fanfare, with a dedication ceremony March 18 drawing Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who issued a proclamation recognizing the mosque, the release stated.
Here's @JohnKerry at the coronation on Saturday and whaddaya know? He appears to have found those medals he proudly, flamboyantly threw away in an antiwar protest in 1971. In case you were wondering whether Kerry is still a phony, the answer is yes — yes, he is. pic.twitter.com/AWiD6EkyvQ
Steve McQueen’s 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 by Scaglietti.
At Sotheby’s, Monterey, 18 – 19 August 2023, the Ferrari 275 GTB/4 once owned by the King of Cool. The front-engined grand tourer is expected to fetch serious money due to its provenance. Under the long and shapely hood of the Scaglietti-design is a 3.3-liter Colombo V12 engine good for 300 horsepower. It’s a rather unique car, having been repainted in stunning Chianti Red (over the original gold paint) and then fitted with the wheels and wing mirror from his convertible Ferrari 275 GTB/4 that he had crashed. This very car was restored to perfection by Ferrari Classiche between 2010 and 2013. It sold for $10 million at RM Sotheby’s flagship Monterey sale back in August 2014, and it should fetch an even larger sum when it hits the auction block again this August.
Yuri Bezmonov today shared a little fable that’s been floating around on the Internet for several years.
My favorite fishing story:
An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The Mexican replied, “only a little while”. The American then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish? The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs. The American then asked, “but what do you do with the rest of your time?”
The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siestas with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I drink cervesas with my amigos. I have a full and busy life.” The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing, and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually New York City, where you will run your expanding enterprise.”
The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, how long will this all take?”
To which the American replied, “15 – 20 years.”
“But what then?” Asked the Mexican.
The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions!”
“Millions – then what?”
The American said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siestas with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could drink cervesas with your amigos.”
The 1896 Mauser “Broomhandle” semi-automatic pistol fired an 86 grain bullet (a lot like today’s 90 grain 9mm Parabellums) at a much zippier 1450 fps (like a .357 magnum, just a smaller bullet). The magazine held ten rounds, and it was the most powerful handgun in the world right up until the late 1930s when the.357 Magnum came along.
Winston Churchill carried one when he charged with the 21st Lancers at the Battle of Omdurman in 1898, and it saved his bacon.
I have one, of less distinguished pedigree, myself. It’s a really neat, historical, and quite accurate gun, and plenty powerful. When you shoot it, it belches fire out the muzzle and the breech!
Back when I still lived in Connecticut, I was in the habit of test firing guns a bit in my basement. There was a second room under the north wing of the house, and against an old porch pillar standing in support I would prop up a series of 2x4s and other scrap boards with lots of layers, ink in a bullseye, and then fire into the target through the doorway from the outer basement room.
When I first fired my Broomhandle, the bullet penetrated straight through six layers of boards ricocheted off the concrete walls of the far room three times and then exited through a basement window. I was impressed, and felt really stupid and really lucky, though I did have to go and replace that glass!
Cool as my Broomhandle is, the scoped model coming up for auction soon is decidedly cooler. Unfortunately, it apparently falls into the “All the Tea in China” range of collectable value. I still enjoyed looking at the auction listing.
SCOPE & STOCK. Cal. 7.63mm. S# 834001. Seldom does one come across a truly unique special order firearm. This incredible ensemble was reportedly made in 1931 and based on a 1930 Commercial pistol. The frame was dimensionally changed, thickened in the upper portion of the right side to provide a flat surface for a scope base upon which could be mounted an OIGEE scope. The scoped pistol, attached to a standard 1930 Commercial stock, presenting an extraordinarily ensemble that may have been used as a basis for the Hollywood Han Solo blaster. This exact ensemble was sold at a major auction house in the U.S., many years ago, for over $50,000, and was profiled in great detail in the German language C96 book “GESCHICHTE & MODELLE 1923-1945, Vol 4″ on pages 135-137″. The project started using a standard M1930 Commercial having a 5.5″ bbl. w/ fixed front sight & slip-in rear sight graduated 50-1000. Short extractor, 2-lug firing pin, universal safety & sm. ring hammer. Usual Mauser address on top of chamber, Crown/”C”/”U” proof on left chamber flat. Full S# on left side of bbl. extension, disassembly showing a matching frame & an unnumbered locking block & floorplate. The special order work was largely directed to the right side of the frame where the upper portion was machined flat. A scope base was attached using 2 lg. diameter pins, then welded in place, its surface having 2 channels for the cammed levers of the mount. The mount slipped over the base & was secured by turning the levers, just as used to attach a Luger stock to its corresponding lug. Sturdy rings were used to secure an OIGEE scope, the manufacturer active from 1910-1960, marked “OIGEE/BERLIN” in 2 locations, with a magnification of 2.5x & marked “6134” under adjustment knobs. “5588” marked on top of scope, arguably representing the model. Presenting reticle is a central pointed post bracketed by 2 equally thick horizontal bars. The attaching stock is from a standard production 1930 Commercial, this one having an unmarked lug w/ squared shoulders. UNATTACHED ACCESSORIES: scope w/ attached mount & 1930 Commercial shoulder stock. CONDITION: near excellent original salt blue as applied by Mauser to their 1930 Commercial pistols w/ a tempering line just behind the chamber & another at the upper rear of the frame. Sharp edge & handling wear as one might expect from a pistol that has seen light use w/ no evidence of touch up. Bright bore w/sharp rifling. Perfect manual mechanics. Scope & mount, each w/ original finish, are in the same condition w/ scope having bright, crisp optics. Excellent shoulder stock w/a light scattering of handling dings, comparable condition hinge, lug w/ fading over its upper arm. An absolutely stunning special order ensemble. Yes, you could own the Hollywood blaster, but wouldn’t you rather have the real thing? (22-3153/LMA). CURIO. $35,000-65,000.
The month of June is recognized as (LGBTI) Pride Month. The United States respects the dignity & equality of LGBTI people & celebrates their contributions to the society. We remain committed to supporting civil rights of minorities, including LGBTI persons. #Pride2021#PrideMonthpic.twitter.com/qgKPQAPaOY
— U.S. Embassy Kabul (@USEmbassyKabul) June 2, 2021
The old cultural imperialism was supposedly greedy corporatism like Disneyland, McDonald’s, and Starbucks sprouting up worldwide to supplant local competitors.
But these businesses spread because they appealed to free-will consumer demand abroad. They were not imposed top down.
The U.S. presence in Afghanistan collapsed in August 2021 amid the greatest American military humiliation in modern history. A billion-dollar new embassy was abandoned. Hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of new infrastructure at the huge Bagram Airbase was dumped.
We still do not know how many billions of dollars of sophisticated new weapons were left to the Taliban and now are making their way through global terrorists’ marts.
Yet, in our skedaddle, the LGBTQ flag still flew high from our new Kabul embassy. A George Floyd mural was prominent on city streets.
And gender studies programs — to the tune of $787 million in American subsidies — were showcased at Kabul University, in one of the most conservative Islamic countries in the world.
Rainbow flags and Black Lives Matter banners have hung from our embassy in South Korea.
Such partisan cultural activism is a diplomatic first.
The woke left has now weaponized the country’s diplomatic missions abroad to advance highly partisan and controversial agendas that can offend their hosts, and do not represent the majority of American voters at home.
American foreign policy toward other nations seems now to hinge on their positions on transgender people, LGBTQ promotion, abortion, climate change, and an array of woke issues from using multiple pronouns on passports to showcasing transgender ambassadors.
The Biden Administration in January 2022 stopped the EastMed pipeline. That joint effort of our allies Cyprus, Greece, and Israel sought to bring much needed clean-burning Mediterranean natural gas to southern Europe.
Apparently, our diplomats felt it violated our own New Green Deal orthodoxies. So we imperialists interfered to destroy a vital project of our closest allies.
The White House manifesto called the “National Strategy on Gender Equity and Equality” offers a blueprint for how to massage nations abroad to accept our values that are increasingly at odds with much of the world’s.
Do Americans really believe that embracing drag-queen shows at military bases, abortion to the moment of birth, transgender men competing in women’s sports, and the promised effort to ban the internal combustion engine are effective ways to ensure good relations with the United States?
No wonder the Biden Administration’s new cultural imperialism is proving disastrous for a variety of reasons.
One, these imperialistic and chauvinistic agendas are pushed abroad at the very time the respect for the U.S. military is at an all-time low. It was humiliated in Afghanistan. It is now unable to recruit sufficient qualified soldiers. Its stocks of critical weapons are depleted.
The Pentagon leadership of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley, along with Joe Biden, do not radiate competence.
But they do exude woke pieties.
While we offend Middle East oil exporters and Central Europeans, China allies with Russia and Iran. India and Turkey triangulate away from the United States. Sanctimonious hectoring while appearing weak is a bad combination.
Two, these warped standards are incoherent. Is an abortion-on-demand, totalitarian China therefore an ally? How could we damn supposedly non-woke Saudi Arabia as we begged it to pump more of its non-green oil before the 2022 midterms?
The adoption by Poland of a Liberal Constitution so alarmed the despotisms of its neighboring empires that they invaded and punished Poland with the Second Partition of 1793. The actual document was seized and carried off and locked away in the Kremlin in Moscow, in a trunk tightly chained, as if it constituted a kind of weapon of mass destruction, which to autocracy and despotism perhaps it did.
The old Roman road approaching the Borgo Pass today.
The action of Bram Stoker’s Dracula commences on May 3rd, and you can follow the daily events of the novel on this Substack.
JONATHAN HARKER’S JOURNAL
(Kept in shorthand.)
3 May. Bistritz — Left Munich at 8:35 P. M., on 1st May, arriving at Vienna early next morning; should have arrived at 6:46, but train was an hour late. Buda-Pesth seems a wonderful place, from the glimpse which I got of it from the train and the little I could walk through the streets. I feared to go very far from the station, as we had arrived late and would start as near the correct time as possible. The impression I had was that we were leaving the West and entering the East; the most western of splendid bridges over the Danube, which is here of noble width and depth, took us among the traditions of Turkish rule.
We left in pretty good time, and came after nightfall to Klausenburgh. Here I stopped for the night at the Hotel Royale. I had for dinner, or rather supper, a chicken done up some way with red pepper, which was very good but thirsty. (Mem., get recipe for Mina.) I asked the waiter, and he said it was called “paprika hendl,” and that, as it was a national dish, I should be able to get it anywhere along the Carpathians. I found my smattering of German very useful here; indeed, I don’t know how I should be able to get on without it.
Having had some time at my disposal when in London, I had visited the British Museum, and made search among the books and maps in the library regarding Transylvania; it had struck me that some foreknowledge of the country could hardly fail to have some importance in dealing with a nobleman of that country. I find that the district he named is in the extreme east of the country, just on the borders of three states, Transylvania, Moldavia and Bukovina, in the midst of the Carpathian mountains; one of the wildest and least known portions of Europe. I was not able to light on any map or work giving the exact locality of the Castle Dracula, as there are no maps of this country as yet to compare with our own Ordnance Survey maps; but I found that Bistritz, the post town named by Count Dracula, is a fairly well-known place. I shall enter here some of my notes, as they may refresh my memory when I talk over my travels with Mina.
In the population of Transylvania there are four distinct nationalities: Saxons in the South, and mixed with them the Wallachs, who are the descendants of the Dacians; Magyars in the West, and Szekelys in the East and North. I am going among the latter, who claim to be descended from Attila and the Huns. This may be so, for when the Magyars conquered the country in the eleventh century they found the Huns settled in it. I read that every known superstition in the world is gathered into the horseshoe of the Carpathians, as if it were the centre of some sort of imaginative whirlpool; if so my stay may be very interesting. (Mem., I must ask the Count all about them.) Read the rest of this entry »
While [Mr. & Mrs. David Geimer] were in Paris, David took a photo of his wife and Polanski. They are all smiles.
Geimer told [a] French magazine:
“Let me be very clear: what happened with Polanski was never a big problem for me. I didn’t even know it was illegal, that someone could be arrested for it. I was fine, I’m still fine. The fact that we’ve made this [a big deal] weighs on me terribly. To have to constantly repeat that it wasn’t a big deal, it’s a terrible burden.
“The extradition attempt, the fact that Roman was arrested like that, it was so unfair and so in opposition to justice,” Geimer also said in the Le Pointe interview. “Everyone should know by now that Roman has served his sentence. Which was… long, if you want my opinion. From my side, nobody wanted him to go to jail, but he did and it was enough. He paid his debt to society. There, end of story. He did everything that was asked of him until the situation went berserk he had no other choice but to flee. Anyone who thinks that he deserves to be in prison is wrong. It isn’t the case today and it wasn’t the case yesterday.”
———————
I commented at length, back in 2009, during the outbreak of national hysteria in which journalists on both political sides climbed up on portable pulpits and howled for Polanski to be extradited from Europe and flung into prison for sleeping with an underage young lady more than 30 years earlier.
