Monthly Archives: October 2020

Spooky Cemetery Cats

Ok, they’re not spooky. They’re gorgeous. Both of the cemeteries featured here provide some care for the ferals who live on their grounds – I think the Italians do a better job of it, though.

The first two are from the Cimetiere de Montmartre, Paris, 2018. Truffaut and Stendahl and La Goulue are also buried there, so those artistic giants are in good feline company.

“Do you mind, lady? I’m trying to groom.”

When a cat finds a ray of sunshine, a cat’s got to rest, even on someone else’s final resting place.

Next images are all from Rome’s Protestant Cemetery – or Cimitero Acattolico.

Radical Calico Cat, hanging with Gramsci, 2016.

At Keats’ grave, contemplating life, poetry and mice, 2016.

Whose ghost are you? 2013.

“Leaving already, tourist? Good.” 2013.

Happy Hallowe’en, all!

Samuel Paty: Important Stories Overlooked

Yes, Covid is a defining story. But you know what isn’t? Trump vs. Biden. This too shall pass and America will survive because it is a great country. The anger and the loudness don’t make it “the most important election of our lifetime.” Nope.

Here is something that will have a far greater impact – CRISPR.

And frankly, the tragedy of Samuel Paty should be the headline in every Western country, in every Western newspaper. But it is not. We are cowards. We are blithe. I fear it is too late for Europe (as spot-on as Macron was in this speech, he can’t do it alone), but maybe not for North America. I stress the “maybe.”

After the Charlie Hebdo massacres, someone I had thought to be sane-ish, told me I was wrong to view it as a black-and-white issue. Oh no, she said – there are “nuances” and “shades of grey.” Seriously? Slaughtering people because they mocked your faith and slaughtering people because they are Jews are actions that are nuanced? I referenced this person’s nonsense here (column is from 2015 and links may no longer work).

We need moral leaders. Principled leaders. Trump is not one, but anyone who thinks Biden will be one is deluded, and then some. Where are our moral leaders on Paty? The Pope recently made an exciting and positive comment about gay civil unions. Wonderful, of course, but a week after Paty’s murder he has yet to utter the man’s name and yet to issue a condemnation of the murderer and his motivation. I’m not surprised, though: after Charlie Hebdo, Pope Francis said a remarkably stupid thing about the massacres, apparently excusing the crimes (see my column above).

When the President of France is your greatest hope…

Beryl O’Links: Thanksgiving Edition

Friends, I posted yesterday – see my previous post, “Sunday Sanity” – about how a certain kind of article (a rational, historically accurate article that challenges a beloved-by-the-chattering-classes narrative) could never appear in The New York Times. Turns out I was wrong – Bret Stephens on the 1619 Chronicles.

More on the wonderful Stanley Crouch.

Noor bin Ladin on how being Osama’s niece has caused her less grief than her support of Trump.

On Philip Larkin’s heartwarming side.

To be filed under “Duh!”: alcohol consumption rises sharply during pandemic.

Sue me: I like BHL!

Why T. S. Eliot still matters.

Though it’s hard for some to admit – seriously, I have seen people tying themselves into pretzels to not admit this – the Abraham Accords are a positive and huge development.

Grizzly kills hunter: the animals are done with us, part one.

Parrots curse visitors to wildlife park: the animals are done with us, part two.

Sunday Sanity

Thoroughly researched, highly intelligent article about “stolen” countries. Appropriate this Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, and the day before Columbus Day in the U.S. I hope it will not be behind a paywall for you. Here, at least, is what we old tyme bloggers call a “money quote.”

Again, my criticism of the current excesses of the left is absolutely not a call to embrace the worst aspects of the right. This is no code or excuse for jingoism, racism or any other ism. I fully support the lessons of the world wars that excessive nationalism, that unilateralism, are ugly and a bad idea. It is rather a caution: a sense that we have to be careful how far we go, and how quickly, in our rush to signal our support for the historically downtrodden. On a personal note, I add that it gives me zero pleasure to have to write this piece. Fifteen years ago, I would have been the one at the barricades helping Native Americans rally against an oil company or some such. Writing this, I incur considerable personal and professional cost in order to come out of the closet as a (shock, horror) centrist, who believes that the left is currently rampaging out of control and must be stopped before it’s too late. One arena in which I can best help is the interpretation of history, upon which much of the current leftist hysteria is based.

The narrative of the ‘stolen country’ or ‘Native American genocide’ does not stand up to scrutiny by any honest and clear-sighted historian. It is a dangerously myopic and one-sided interpretation of history. It has only gained currency because most practising historians and history teachers are either susceptible to groupthink, or else have been cowed into silence by fear of losing their jobs. Reduced to its puerile form of ‘statement of guilt’, this myth puts 100 per cent of the burden on Europeans who are held responsible for all historical evil, while the First Nations people are mere victims; martyrs even, whose saintlike innocence presumes that their civilisation and society were practically perfect in every way. This is no way to honour or respect the realities of First Nation lives and their agency.

Honestly, I am surprised this article was published at all, though, of course, I doubt it would have seen the light of day in The New York Times Magazine. Two excellent books covering the same topic – more or less – and both worth your time, are: The Ecological Indian and 1491.