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Farewell to Kings (and Faith): Neil Peart, 1977

bradbirzer's avatarProgarchy

In honor of the 40th anniversary of the release of A FAREWELL TO KINGS.

rush farewell 40th Anniversary Edition

What followed, 1977’s A Farewell to Kings, though, had far more in common with 1976’s 2112 than it would with 1980’s Permanent Waves.  Not appearing on the market until September 1, 1977, A Farewell to Kings ended the new album every six months schedule Rush has followed thus far.  A brilliant album in and of itself, A Farewell to Kings still belongs to Rush 2.1 as I have defined it.  So does the follow-up album, Hemispheres.  Certainly, Rush tried many new things—in terms of album structure, lyrical depth and story telling, and musical complexity—than it had on the first several albums.  “We had written material that was a little beyond us, considering our level of musicianship at the time,” Lee later admitted.[i]  But the progress is in continuity…

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 Posted on January 22, 2018 by

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Founding a REPUBLIC Not a Democracy (TAC)

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A republican, armed with musket and plow.

This evening, at The American Conservative–founding a REPUBLIC not a democracy.

Even the most pro-interventionist of the American founders, Alexander Hamilton, could never have imagined or desired the kind of federal government we have now. When he wrote of “energy” in government, he meant it as a means of restraint. To give “energy” to government meant, at least to Hamilton, giving the federal government the means to execute the powers expected of it by its Constitution. Rather brilliantly, he argued that a government charged with a duty but not empowered by the specific rules of that government to accomplish its duty would merely make up its own rules, thus taking government away from restraint and toward leviathan. Though many libertarians think of Hamilton as the touchstone for all future expansive government, they’re wrong. Even Alexander Hamilton desired ways to limit the expansion of government, and whether he wanted a strong executive or not, he envisioned a small, commercial republic as the proper outcome of the American revolution.
 

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 Posted on January 21, 2018 by

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We Need a SERIOUS Immigration Debate (TAC)

It’s time for conservatives (and libertarians) to have a VERY serious debate about immigration.  The issue is way too important to leave to emotions and assumptions.

As Christians around the world celebrated the arrival of the Three Kings—the Magi of the Orient—on Epiphany, the president of the United States called for $33 billion to shore up America’s borders with $18 billion for the wall.  Would the Magi have been admitted in 2018? “Excuse me, Balthasar, but I need to see that your papers are in order.  Oh, I’m sorry, but your gift of myrrh exceeds our 3.2 ounces of liquid allowed.”

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/birzer/bring-on-the-conservative-debate-for-immigration/

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 Posted on January 12, 2018 by

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U.S. Economic History Syllabus, Spring 2018

OttesonH442, Economic History of the United States

Syllabus, Spring 2018.  Lane 125, 9:30-10:45, Tuesdays-Thursdays

Prof (such as he is!): Brad Birzer

 

H442 students, thank you so much for taking this course.  I’ve only taught it once before, and that was way back in 2001.  Roughly the time some of you were only aged one or two!  For what it’s worth, I grew up (in high school) reading everything I could from Henry Hazlitt, Milton Friedman, Steve Forbes, Israel Kirzner, and Friedrich Hayek.  Yes, I was that guy in the 1980s.  Still, while I think I’m fairly good on entrepreneurial theory and the broad overview of American business and entrepreneurial history, I’m not an expert. So, again—thank you.

 

Assigned readings. 

You will be responsible for these as a major part of your midterm and final examinations.

  • James Otteson, THE END OF SOCIALISM (first half of the semester)
  • Robert Higgs, CRISIS AND LEVIATHAN (second half of the semester)
  • other articles, chapters, etc.—scanned and sent to you via email or dropbox

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 Posted on January 12, 2018 by

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TIC: Conservatism of Robert A. Nisbet

Robert Nisbet, in direct contrast to Russell Kirk, argued that conservatism was purely a modern ideology. For Nisbet, the entire history of conservatism began as a reaction to the French Revolution… Robert Nisbet When it came to the history of conservatism, the grand sociologist and man of letters, Robert Nisbet, disagreed with the mighty founder…

via The Conservatism of Robert Nisbet — The Imaginative Conservative

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 Posted on January 11, 2018 by

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Temperance, Properly Understood

Today at The Imaginative Conservative, my look at the PROPER employment of temperance, the use of the created goods for the good! None of that silly no drinking nonsense. Guardini, Tolkien, Como (Italy), Como (Colorado).
 

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 Posted on January 2, 2018 by

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$20/Year Print Subscription to THE AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE

logo TAC
Hey, you’re already a friend of Stormfields, so please–BY ALL MEANS–take advantage of said friendship.
 
“Friend of Brad” print subscription to THE AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE—$20/year.
 
Save $39.95!
 
Pretty amazing savings–especially for a beautiful magazine mailed to your door. Yes, something tangible!
 

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 Posted on January 2, 2018 by

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BLOODED: Brilliant Horror by Chuck Dixon

Dixon BloodedReview of Chuck Dixon, Blooded: A Novel with Teeth (Bruno Books, 2017).

Blooded is a gripping, driving, and, at times, disturbing story of a real estate agent who becomes stupidly amorous with a hookup in a bar.

No sin goes unpunished.

The next morning, he finds that his “score” is really a vampiress, and she’s turned him into a vampire as well.  Though we know next to nothing about the protagonist, we quickly and rather sympathetically follow his exploits as he has to figure out how to live this new life.

We learn of him—in a genius aspect of Dixon’s writing—only by the choices he makes from that fateful morning forward.  Does he embrace the new lifestyle?  Does he keep his old morality (which, from what little the reader knows, was already pretty shady)?  Does he remain a human who now has supernatural powers (and limits)?  Or, does he become the monster he must become to survive in this new form?

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 Posted on December 23, 2017 by

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The Elegy of Bruce Wayne–Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy

“I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss.  I see the lives for which I lay down my life, peaceful, useful, prosperous and happy.  I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of their descendants, generations hence. It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”

–Obituary for Bruce Wayne, taken from Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities.

batman_dark_knight_rises-wide

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 Posted on December 20, 2017 by

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Lee Edwards: Conservative

Lee Edwards has not just known the greats of post-World War II conservatism, but he has also lived with them, and as one of them… Celebrating his eighty-fifth year on this earth, Lee Edwards is a remarkable cultural treasure, a man’s man, a gentleman’s gentleman, and a conservative’s conservative. Biographer of Ronald Reagan and of…

via A True Conservative: Lee Edwards — The Imaginative Conservative

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 Posted on December 16, 2017 by

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The Klug’s Christmas Suggestions

Here are four recently-published books and four new classical music albums that I have greatly enjoyed this past year… Books I’ve read several excellent biographies (and one great autobiography) this past year. Foremost among the former is Jan Swafford’s magisterial Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph, which could easily be termed the definitive biography of perhaps the greatest…

via Good Books and Great Music for Christmas Gifting — The Imaginative Conservative

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 Posted on December 16, 2017 by

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From TIC: Ride the High Country

For students of leadership for a just society, Ride the High Country crystallizes beliefs and codes of behavior worth studying, affirming, and claiming today… If you want to know what made the statesman and military leader George Catlett Marshall (1880–1959) great, then watch Ride the High Country (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), and you will receive a taste of that knowledge. This…

via “Ride the High Country”: An Elegy on Leadership — The Imaginative Conservative

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 Posted on December 16, 2017 by

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