Stormfields

Andrew Jackson: Democrat or Old Republican? (TIC)

When Andrew Jackson died in 1845, he had still not aligned himself officially with the Democratic party, still believing himself a natural and cultivated republican. Was he, then, an Old Republican?… 1,728 more words

via Andrew Jackson: Democrat or Old Republican? — The Imaginative Conservative

Cultural Debris: Two Conferences & the Future of Our Civilization (TIC)

There still are men and women enough among us who know what makes life worth living—enough of them to keep out the modern barbarian, if they are resolute. 3,492 more words

via Cultural Debris: Two Conferences & the Future of Our Civilization — The Imaginative Conservative

Grace in the Unredeemed Land of Middle-Earth – The Imaginative Conservative

In almost every way, J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Passage of the Marshes” presents a deeply frightening and suffocating experience for the reader, as the two Hobbits and the decrepit Gollum move across a landscape that has become devoid of grace… (essay by Bradley Birzer)
— Read on www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2018/05/grace-unredeemed-land-middle-earth-bradley-birzer.html

Mead Halls in Winter: Big Big Train as Community — Progarchy

One of the wildest and most disturbing aspects of modernity is how compartmentalized everything becomes. One important thing (a person, an idea, an institution) becomes isolated and, in its isolation, takes on its own importance, its own language (jargon), and, naturally, its own abstraction. During the past 100 years, a number of groups have tried […]

via Mead Halls in Winter: Big Big Train as Community — Progarchy

Plato’s “Timaeus”: Science, Mathematics, and a Life Lesson

Plato’s “Timaeus”: Science, Mathematics, and a Life Lesson

http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2018/05/science-mathematics-life-lesson-plato-timaeus-john-mark-reynolds.html
— Read on www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2018/05/science-mathematics-life-lesson-plato-timaeus-john-mark-reynolds.html

Vapor Trails by Rush at 16: Peart’s Victory

It would not be an exaggeration to argue that meeting Carrie Nuttall served as one of the most important moments in Peart’s life and in precipitating Rush 3.0. In her, Peart found a reason to live fully, a reason to rediscover excellence, and a reason to return to his life in Rush. It was through […]

via Neil Peart’s Painful Victory: Vapor Trails — Progarchy

The Zombification of Hillsdale College

Looking over Twitter and Facebook, I see that many humans believe we at Hillsdale College have become a college that 1) has made a golden calf of the current executive in the White House; and 2) that we are dedicated to taking over Washington, D.C.  Why?  Because we asked the vice president to be our commencement speaker.

Yes, yes, it’s all true. We’ve been directed to mention the bravery of our current president in every history class. Heraclitus and Trump, Zeno and Trump, Cato and Trump, Augustine and Trump. And just imagine how we now teach medieval history. Why Petrarch wants you to take over DC. Thomas a Beckett and his poor choice of martyrdom—why a true holy man should work in DC. How Aquinas’s On Kingship prophesized the coming of the 45^th president.

And, in American history: how Trump would’ve crossed the Delaware; how Trump would’ve taught Lewis and Clark much about navigating by the stars; how Trump would’ve single handedly liberated Mexico City.

Then, of course, we have the comic book villain classes. How Darkseid and Thanos are really allegories of the Democratic Party.  These are our senior capstone classes.

And, just so you all know that each of us has been asked to do our part in our private lives. . . at our local parish, we’ve substituted Trump with Jesus. Every time Jesus is supposed to be mentioned, we say Trump, and all bend a knee.

Even in the Birzer house, we’ve done what we can.  We replaced the statue of St. Francis in our yard with a Trump statue.  We took all of our crucifixes down in the house—replaced with the official portrait of. . . yes, you guessed it. . . President Trump.

“Let us now pray.  Dear God, where we have failed, make us whole?  Let us never—as a body of faculty or students—ever believe in anything other than tapioca conformity.  Let us forget our noble heritage of being the first college to be color blind and gender blind.  Let us forget that hundreds of Hillsdale men died at Gettysburg to end slavery.  Let us forget all of this and always honor the name of Trump.  Amen.”

The Art and Delight of Progressive Rock — The Imaginative Conservative

Jerry Ewing’s greatest achievements in Wonderous Stories are to show conclusively that progressive rock never died and continues to thrive; and that it’s a vital and vibrant cultural expression, worthy of all due scholarly and cultural attention… 1,643 more words

via The Art and Delight of Progressive Rock — The Imaginative Conservative

Marillion’s Glorious BRAVE Reviewed (TAC)

The good folks of The American Conservative allowed me to indulge one of my greatest loves and write about the 2018 re-release of Marillion’s BRAVE, remixed by Steven Wilson.  Whatever your politics, please head over there to check it out.

“The Cold War is done, but those bastards will find us another one.”

This cry might have come from any current reader of The American Conservative alive in the early 1990s—well, maybe without the bastard part. But still, an anguished expression from Russell Kirk or Pat Buchanan? Why not? After all, as TAC editor Bob Merry recently and wisely noted, so many so-called conservatives of the early 1990s “kicked Reagan to the curb” the moment they inherited the Republican Party. And it seems they kept kicking, mutating a military that came into existence solely to defeat the Soviets into a world peace-keeping force, a new Delian League. The bastards did find us another one.

And then: “They’re here to protect us, don’t you know. So get used to it. Get used to it.”

James Bovard or Virginia Postrel? Or some other grand libertarian of a quarter of a century ago? Why not?

Actually, the words are prog rock lyrics from Marillion’s album Brave (1994).

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/marillion-prog-rocks-bards-of-alienation/

A Conservative Reclaims the Sea

A Conservative Reclaims the Sea

http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2018/05/conservative-reclaims-sea-miles-smith.html
— Read on www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2018/05/conservative-reclaims-sea-miles-smith.html