As newly-reelected US President Barack Obama calls for bipartisanship to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff,” a more possible example seems to be emerging in Middle Earth, where parties warring for eons are uniting against a common foe. “In the last 48 hours thousands of orcs and various daemons have pledged loyalty to the Common Front [...]
Mister Franklin, humans call him; Turkeys call him Gentle Ben. Lovingly we keep his memory From our tree or field or fen, Once our day of thanks ensures That some of us outlasted yours. Wild and canny, lithe and limber, Peaceful as a bird can be, Perching high in Yankee timber, We, true Sons of [...]
Janet Himmelman swept back her hair, turned away from the computer screen and set her spectacles on her desk; this was the part of her job that she hated the most. She looked the nervous young man in his eyes and spoke as kindly as she could. “I’m sorry, Charles, but you simply do not [...]
(Visitor: “What should be our national mission?”) A mission for Amurika! That’s surely what we need! A moral cause to save the world, a banner and a screed, So thousands of Amurikans, in every foreign land, Exacerbate the problems that we never understand. […]
(WARNING: Contains Neo-Conservatism and saucy language) Well, here’s a big buon giorno to our National Public Radio audience, because it’s time for Impariamo Opera and I’m your co-host, Angela Tedioso. And I’m Hans-Dieter Langweilig. But today we stray from the shores of sunny Italy to the magical, musical world of Strauss. […]
The Chairman smiled even though the meeting had run too long already. He asked gently, “Is that all for today, Rocky?” He used a favourite nickname for the elderly manager who had long been as dependable as a rock. “One more thing, Lord,” mumbled Saint Peter, shuffling through his notes. God stroked His beard patiently. [...]
International bad-boy Julian Assange stripped naked, shot pool with pneumatic tarts in Las Vegas and had his photo spread all over the internet; while Britain’s Prince Harry remains locked into London’s Ecuadorian embassy until pneumatic tarts in Sweden promise not to extradite him to America. Sorry. Let me try that again. Prince Harry, third in [...]
Hosting the 2012 London Olympics is estimated to cost UK 14 billion (US 21.9 billion), up from the initial 2005 bid estimate of UK 2.37 billion (US 3.7 billion). This comes when the UK government budget is still growing, albeit more slowly, and the state fires soldiers and slows local garbage collection while protecting its [...]
A phenomenally well-travelled lady doctor in Upstate New York once told me, disparagingly, that millions of American families at Florida’s Epcot Center spend more money to visit there, and to frequent its ersatz Spanish bodega, than it would have cost them to go to Spain and enjoy the real thing. She may be right. Those [...]
English families sometimes play ‘the Belgium Game’ as they motor through that country toward holidays in France or Switzerland; it gives them almost three hours to recall the name of a single famous Belgian. Not all contestants succeed. The surrealist painter Rene Magritte (1898-1967) is one acceptable answer, and I recently visited his museum [...]
Admittedly, I am more frequently found beside a small glass of madeira in the club library (preferably a Great War-era Terrantez, or the rum-based Buals which are now getting equally hard to find). But I jumped at the chance to actually meet the members of my favourite pop-band while they tour England. Okay, so [...]
So, the splendid old gent is finally retiring. I knew him briefly some quarter-century ago when he was merely old; now he is 94 and trading an enchanted mountain paradise in the former princely state of Chitral for the hot, Punjabi flatlands down-country. Major Geoffrey Langlands began teaching in England in 1936, the year in [...]
Recently on these pages, I wrote exploring the notion that true conservatives may further weaken Western culture by supporting a popular but materialist political agenda; that the free-market economics which enrich a nation may encourage more selfishness and social breakdown; and at best we may be merely fighting a temporary, rear-guard action in defence of [...]
(An Inadequate Response to Dr. Brad Birzer) There is probably a board-game (and some of you may identify one) in which opponents are given different capabilities and limitations. Unlike chess, where opponents have identical numbers of pieces that are the same for each side and are played to one common set of rules, there may [...]