Today is the 132nd anniversary of the birth of one of the greatest war leaders in the history of our people, the Right Honorable Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill Knight of the Garter, Order of Merit, Companion of Honor, Fellow of the Royal Society, Privy Counselor, Privy Counselor for Canada, twice Prime Minister, Leader of the House of Commons, Chancellor of the Exchequer, the first ever Minister of Defense, twice First Lord of the Admiralty, Secretary of State for War, Secretary of State for Air, Minister of Munitions, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Home Secretary, President of the Board of Trade, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, Elder Brother of Trinity House, Chancellor of the University of Bristol, Father of the House of Commons, Nobel Laureate for Literature, first Honorary Citizen of the United States, etc.
He was born 30 November, 1874 at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, the home of his fathers, the first son of Lord Randolph Churchill and Jennie Jerome. He was a graduate of Harrow and the Royal Military College Sandhurst. He served in India with the 4th (Queen’s Own) Hussars and fought on the Northwest Frontier. He charged with the 21st Lancers at Omdurman, the last real cavalry charge of the British Army. He served with the South African Light House during the Second Boer War. He was elected to parliament for the first time in 1899 and sat almost without interruption through the reign of six monarchs. He joined the cabinet for the first time in 1908. During the First World War he served with the Royal Scots Fusiliers commanding the 6th battalion (territorial army) on the Western Front. He was a journalist, inventor (the patent for the tank), author, painter, soldier, statesman, and quite possibly the savior of western civilization. He was, in short, a very great man.
He died 24 January, 1965 and after a state funeral was laid to rest in the graveyard of St. Martin Church, Bladon a short drive from where he was born. May his memory endure as long as our people.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Thursday, November 16, 2006
AUN! News: A Huge Loss
Economist Milton Freedman is dead at age 94. I have to say I feel a bit hollow. He was a giant and now he is gone. Ended the Draft and improved monetary policy. Could speak intelligibly about freedom. We didn’t what we had until we lost him. I am more shocked than when Reagan died. But not as shocked as I will be when Thatcher goes. That will be then end of an era. RIP
BTW I just realized my previous post on boarding schools was my 100th. Seems silly now but I had meant to make a big deal about that. Now just shocked.
UPDATE this should have been posted sooner but I had trouble posting
BTW I just realized my previous post on boarding schools was my 100th. Seems silly now but I had meant to make a big deal about that. Now just shocked.
UPDATE this should have been posted sooner but I had trouble posting
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Boarding Schools
A while back there was a post on Albion’s Seedlings and Chicagoboys which generated comments which explored education and especially mentioned the so called St. Grottlesex schools and more broadly the many boarding schools around the Anglosphere.
I am interested in this topic for what is basically two reasons. First, I think they are exactly what we need to look at in rebuilding an educational system for our country and the Anglosphere at large. Secondly as an old boy myself, I am naturally interested in boarding schools.
Anyway, here is a bunch of information for any one who is interested. I am going to start with a little parochialism giving links to the two boarding schools I attended, Eaglebrook, a junior boarding school and Avon Old Farms, a high school.
Then for those who are wondering what St. Grottlesex stands for, it is a name for St. Paul’s, St. Mark’s, St. George’s, Groton, and Middlesex.
Other famous American Boarding Schools include Andover, Exeter and Deerfield. The Association of Boarding Schools with links to U.S. and Canadian boarding schools is here.
Probably the most famous of the boarding schools in the Anglosphere is King’s College of Our Lady of Eton Beside Windsor. Others famous schools include Winchester, Rugby, and Harrow. The Dragon School is one of the more famous junior boarding schools. I could go on school by school, but here is a link to the Independent Schools Council in the UK and the Boarding Schools Association site.
Other organizations with links include the New Zealand Boarding Schools association here, a link to an Australian site is here, and the Independent Schools of Southern Africa site is here. A list of wikipedia links to boarding schools is here.
There is an interesting presentation by The Association of Boarding Schools here.
Finally what discussion of boarding schools would be complete without mention of boarding school’s contribution to English literature in the form of the boarding school novel, the most famous of which is no doubt Tom Brown’s Schooldays.
I am interested in this topic for what is basically two reasons. First, I think they are exactly what we need to look at in rebuilding an educational system for our country and the Anglosphere at large. Secondly as an old boy myself, I am naturally interested in boarding schools.
Anyway, here is a bunch of information for any one who is interested. I am going to start with a little parochialism giving links to the two boarding schools I attended, Eaglebrook, a junior boarding school and Avon Old Farms, a high school.
Then for those who are wondering what St. Grottlesex stands for, it is a name for St. Paul’s, St. Mark’s, St. George’s, Groton, and Middlesex.
Other famous American Boarding Schools include Andover, Exeter and Deerfield. The Association of Boarding Schools with links to U.S. and Canadian boarding schools is here.
Probably the most famous of the boarding schools in the Anglosphere is King’s College of Our Lady of Eton Beside Windsor. Others famous schools include Winchester, Rugby, and Harrow. The Dragon School is one of the more famous junior boarding schools. I could go on school by school, but here is a link to the Independent Schools Council in the UK and the Boarding Schools Association site.
Other organizations with links include the New Zealand Boarding Schools association here, a link to an Australian site is here, and the Independent Schools of Southern Africa site is here. A list of wikipedia links to boarding schools is here.
There is an interesting presentation by The Association of Boarding Schools here.
Finally what discussion of boarding schools would be complete without mention of boarding school’s contribution to English literature in the form of the boarding school novel, the most famous of which is no doubt Tom Brown’s Schooldays.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Count me with the Jews
I have had it with these so called liberals. If you want to turn your stomach read this account of a participant at a pro-war demonstration who was asked point blank by a reporter if he was a Jew. The implication of course was that if he was Jewish he couldn’t be a real Canadian. He was especially offended since he is in fact Jewish, but what offends me is how the left has become more and more blind to the results of their association with the anti-war cause.
I want to ask the left what is “Liberal” or “Progressive” about asking people about their religion to provide “context” for a news story. When I was a boy anyone asking such a question in that context would have rightly been universally reviled as a bigot.
What is liberal about making common political cause with people who believe in the subjugation of women and the stoning of homosexuals? Not just common cause in some minor detail of politics, that would be understandable, but common cause in the defeat of the armed forces of the United States, the United Kingdom, the Kingdom of Canada, and the Commonwealth of Australia.
What is liberal about embracing the big lie theory of propaganda. “Bush Lied!” is just such a big lie. Anyone who has paid even the most cursory attention to the media realizes it is a lie. The much ballyhooed British Cabinet Documents which the anti war folks tried to spin into proof that “Bush Lied” when in fact by confirming that the intelligence picture was unchanged, showed that the Iraqi regime was still trying, as they had been trying for a decade (corrupting the international civil service in the process), to obtain biological, chemical and nuclear weapons. Never mind the additional fact that Iraq had violated virtually every provision of the cease fire agreement that had ended the previous war and that we had been launching retaliatory air strikes all the while, which means there was no peace, only a war we were not trying to win. What I want to know is what is progressive about embracing the fucking Nazi theory of propaganda while calling the President of the United States Bushhitler all the while?
I will answer these questions, there is nothing liberal or progressive about it.
While there are no doubt well meaning people in the democratic party and I don’t just mean Joe Lieberman, the fact is that the democratic party and the left throughout the west is being corrupted by its flirtations with International ANSWER and other apologists for religious terrorist groups. I want to note here by the way ,the very honorable exception of Christopher Hitchens and the rest of that crowd. They are especially to be commended because they must know that this will not totally shield them from unjustified smears post war.
Here is the thing that really offends me about this, I am a liberal at least in the original sense of the word. I dislike it when conservatives use liberal as a smear. I don’t like voting republican as a least worse alternative. I wish the democrats would put up a moderate candidate who I could feel safe in intrusting with the defense of the republic. I would like a much closer watch put on the use of coercive methods of interrogation and stricter rules for military commissions.
Instead what do I get? A party that is to busy cozying up to the anti war movement to give a thought for the average voter who would like a choice.
Now back to the title of this post. I am an atheist, but I was raised in the Episcopal Church. In the hymns we sang every Sunday, which hold my heart still, even if I can’t make my self believe them, we identified ourselves as the people of Zion or Israel. When the crucifixion was told on Good Friday, it was not the Jews, in the sense of some evil other, but the Jews in the sense of us, the people of god who were blamed for rejecting the messiah, just as it was held we rejected him when we sinned. According to the religion of my childhood, the only one to which I could return, I am a Jew.
If playing anti Semitic games is now thought to be A.O.K. in politics, count me among the Jews. I would rather stand with King Christian X of Demark who when told by the Nazi occupation government that they were going to make his Jewish subjects ware a Star of David to mark them out from the rest of his people, said that in that case he was going to ware one also. I would rather stand with King Christian and the many heroes who have opposed anti Semitism and bigotry than with those who stand with Neville Chamberlain for the appeasement of the enemies of our civilization.
That seems to me anyway to be the heart of the question. The left (with the exceptions before mentioned and some others) seems to have lost all respect for our civilization. A civilization which traces it roots from ancient Greece and Rome through the fall of the empire to the Germanic conquerors. A civilization which for all it faults never lost touch with the primitive democracy of the German tribes or the Roman idea of the rule of law. A nation which centralized without abandoning the idea of feudal rights and which then expanded them into rights for all. As a conservative it is this great tradition of rights, democracy, the rule of law, and the struggle for progress that I want to preserve.
Now I don’t want to pretend the English Speaking people have a perfect record, not in general or certainly with respect to our Jewish fellow citizens or subjects. Obviously the expulsion of the Jews from England by King Edward was a disgrace. Nor do I want to pretend that there has never been any anti-Semitism among our people. However it was George Washington who assured the Jewish citizens of Providence that they would always enjoy religious liberty in the United States. It was the voters of the United Kingdom who in the Nineteenth Century returned Benjamin Disraeli as Prime Minister (the conservative voters at that).
Our civilization is a great one and I love it, not only in its manifestation as the United States, but as all the myriad of countries over which, Elizabeth by the grace of god, of the United Kingdom and her other realms and territories Queen, Defender of the Faith, Head of Commonwealth, reigns. For this I have been called a traitor by someone who of course has no idea what treason is under the Laws of the English Speaking People. While my first loyalty, is and must be, while I rely on its protection, to the United States, I feel a strong bond with my people, where ever they live. I hope as the title of this blog proclaims for the Union of all our people living around the world in London, Delhi, New York, Melbourne, Kingstown, Capetown, Singapore, Toronto, Christchurch and a million other places. You might even say I am a bit of an internationalist about it.
International relations is always a bit of a snake pit, but the English Speaking People always prefer if they can to support a country that shares there values. Israel, a liberal democracy in a region of dictatorships, is one such country and one of the most disturbing things about the left’s flirtation with the radical anti-war movement has been how this has turned them against a cause they once treasured. I for one support Israel’s right to exist. If that makes me a Zionist so be it.
In fact from a certain point of view one might almost say I am a Liberal, Jewish, Internationalist, Zionist and I am well known to be a supporter of Capitalism too. If that be treason, make the most of it.
Long Live the Republic!
I want to ask the left what is “Liberal” or “Progressive” about asking people about their religion to provide “context” for a news story. When I was a boy anyone asking such a question in that context would have rightly been universally reviled as a bigot.
What is liberal about making common political cause with people who believe in the subjugation of women and the stoning of homosexuals? Not just common cause in some minor detail of politics, that would be understandable, but common cause in the defeat of the armed forces of the United States, the United Kingdom, the Kingdom of Canada, and the Commonwealth of Australia.
What is liberal about embracing the big lie theory of propaganda. “Bush Lied!” is just such a big lie. Anyone who has paid even the most cursory attention to the media realizes it is a lie. The much ballyhooed British Cabinet Documents which the anti war folks tried to spin into proof that “Bush Lied” when in fact by confirming that the intelligence picture was unchanged, showed that the Iraqi regime was still trying, as they had been trying for a decade (corrupting the international civil service in the process), to obtain biological, chemical and nuclear weapons. Never mind the additional fact that Iraq had violated virtually every provision of the cease fire agreement that had ended the previous war and that we had been launching retaliatory air strikes all the while, which means there was no peace, only a war we were not trying to win. What I want to know is what is progressive about embracing the fucking Nazi theory of propaganda while calling the President of the United States Bushhitler all the while?
I will answer these questions, there is nothing liberal or progressive about it.
While there are no doubt well meaning people in the democratic party and I don’t just mean Joe Lieberman, the fact is that the democratic party and the left throughout the west is being corrupted by its flirtations with International ANSWER and other apologists for religious terrorist groups. I want to note here by the way ,the very honorable exception of Christopher Hitchens and the rest of that crowd. They are especially to be commended because they must know that this will not totally shield them from unjustified smears post war.
Here is the thing that really offends me about this, I am a liberal at least in the original sense of the word. I dislike it when conservatives use liberal as a smear. I don’t like voting republican as a least worse alternative. I wish the democrats would put up a moderate candidate who I could feel safe in intrusting with the defense of the republic. I would like a much closer watch put on the use of coercive methods of interrogation and stricter rules for military commissions.
Instead what do I get? A party that is to busy cozying up to the anti war movement to give a thought for the average voter who would like a choice.
Now back to the title of this post. I am an atheist, but I was raised in the Episcopal Church. In the hymns we sang every Sunday, which hold my heart still, even if I can’t make my self believe them, we identified ourselves as the people of Zion or Israel. When the crucifixion was told on Good Friday, it was not the Jews, in the sense of some evil other, but the Jews in the sense of us, the people of god who were blamed for rejecting the messiah, just as it was held we rejected him when we sinned. According to the religion of my childhood, the only one to which I could return, I am a Jew.
If playing anti Semitic games is now thought to be A.O.K. in politics, count me among the Jews. I would rather stand with King Christian X of Demark who when told by the Nazi occupation government that they were going to make his Jewish subjects ware a Star of David to mark them out from the rest of his people, said that in that case he was going to ware one also. I would rather stand with King Christian and the many heroes who have opposed anti Semitism and bigotry than with those who stand with Neville Chamberlain for the appeasement of the enemies of our civilization.
That seems to me anyway to be the heart of the question. The left (with the exceptions before mentioned and some others) seems to have lost all respect for our civilization. A civilization which traces it roots from ancient Greece and Rome through the fall of the empire to the Germanic conquerors. A civilization which for all it faults never lost touch with the primitive democracy of the German tribes or the Roman idea of the rule of law. A nation which centralized without abandoning the idea of feudal rights and which then expanded them into rights for all. As a conservative it is this great tradition of rights, democracy, the rule of law, and the struggle for progress that I want to preserve.
Now I don’t want to pretend the English Speaking people have a perfect record, not in general or certainly with respect to our Jewish fellow citizens or subjects. Obviously the expulsion of the Jews from England by King Edward was a disgrace. Nor do I want to pretend that there has never been any anti-Semitism among our people. However it was George Washington who assured the Jewish citizens of Providence that they would always enjoy religious liberty in the United States. It was the voters of the United Kingdom who in the Nineteenth Century returned Benjamin Disraeli as Prime Minister (the conservative voters at that).
Our civilization is a great one and I love it, not only in its manifestation as the United States, but as all the myriad of countries over which, Elizabeth by the grace of god, of the United Kingdom and her other realms and territories Queen, Defender of the Faith, Head of Commonwealth, reigns. For this I have been called a traitor by someone who of course has no idea what treason is under the Laws of the English Speaking People. While my first loyalty, is and must be, while I rely on its protection, to the United States, I feel a strong bond with my people, where ever they live. I hope as the title of this blog proclaims for the Union of all our people living around the world in London, Delhi, New York, Melbourne, Kingstown, Capetown, Singapore, Toronto, Christchurch and a million other places. You might even say I am a bit of an internationalist about it.
International relations is always a bit of a snake pit, but the English Speaking People always prefer if they can to support a country that shares there values. Israel, a liberal democracy in a region of dictatorships, is one such country and one of the most disturbing things about the left’s flirtation with the radical anti-war movement has been how this has turned them against a cause they once treasured. I for one support Israel’s right to exist. If that makes me a Zionist so be it.
In fact from a certain point of view one might almost say I am a Liberal, Jewish, Internationalist, Zionist and I am well known to be a supporter of Capitalism too. If that be treason, make the most of it.
Long Live the Republic!
Before You Vote
There is an excellent post “Seeing the Unseen” at Eject, Eject Eject. It is important if you haven’t voted yet read it.
Friday, November 03, 2006
If the Democrats are Wondering
If the Democrats are wondering what John Kerry’s case of foot in mouth disease has cost them, they should consider this. I WAS planning on returning to my normal voting pattern of voting the strait Libertarian Party ticket, after voting for Republicans in 2002 and 2004.
I dislike the president, especially his position on civil liberties and the budget. I WAS thinking that if the Democrats took control of one house, that might not be such a bad thing. Then John Kerry opened his mouth and reminded me of everything that I loath about the modern Democratic party.
I heard about Kerry’s “joke” or “misstatement” and could not help but think of Kipling’s poem “Tommy.” The one that begins,
“I went into a public house to get a pint of beer,
The publican he up and says, We serve no red coats here.”
And concludes with the famous lines.
“Don’t mess about the cook room slops, but prove it to our face
That the Widow’s Uniform is not the soldier man’s disgrace.
For it's Tommy this, and Tommy that, and “Chuck him out, the brute!”
But it’s “the savior of his country,” when the guns begin to shoot
And it’s Tommy this, and Tommy that, and anything you please
But Tommy ain’t a blooming fool you bet that Tommy sees!”
If the Democrats want to win elections, they have to make sure that me and a million voters like me don’t remember what we dislike about their party right before election day. Maybe then we will either vote for them or at least not vote for the Republicans. They ought to always keep in mind the old saying “it is better to remain silent and appear ignorant than to open ones mouth and remove all doubt.”
I dislike the president, especially his position on civil liberties and the budget. I WAS thinking that if the Democrats took control of one house, that might not be such a bad thing. Then John Kerry opened his mouth and reminded me of everything that I loath about the modern Democratic party.
I heard about Kerry’s “joke” or “misstatement” and could not help but think of Kipling’s poem “Tommy.” The one that begins,
“I went into a public house to get a pint of beer,
The publican he up and says, We serve no red coats here.”
And concludes with the famous lines.
“Don’t mess about the cook room slops, but prove it to our face
That the Widow’s Uniform is not the soldier man’s disgrace.
For it's Tommy this, and Tommy that, and “Chuck him out, the brute!”
But it’s “the savior of his country,” when the guns begin to shoot
And it’s Tommy this, and Tommy that, and anything you please
But Tommy ain’t a blooming fool you bet that Tommy sees!”
If the Democrats want to win elections, they have to make sure that me and a million voters like me don’t remember what we dislike about their party right before election day. Maybe then we will either vote for them or at least not vote for the Republicans. They ought to always keep in mind the old saying “it is better to remain silent and appear ignorant than to open ones mouth and remove all doubt.”
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Anglosphere Flag Proposal
I designed this a while back and thought my readers, such as they are might be interested.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Anglosphere Institute Event Video
There is a great video of the inaugeral event of the Anglosphere Institute by Professor Claudio Véliz. The brilliant talk titled "The Optional Descent of the English Speaking World," is well worth the investment of an hour and half.
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