Beer and Biology for St. Patrick’s Day

For anyone looking for a silly song to distract from a dark time—happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Happy Feast of St. Stephen!

As Seen In the classic Christmas carol “Good King Wenceslas”:

The children’s cartoon Phineas and Ferb is surprisingly traditional (and educational!) on the subject:

Things You Hear on NPR: Yeah, We’re Going to Accuse You of Racism No Matter What You Do

It’s the same old “racism” Catch-22—damned if you do, damned if you don’t.  Disney was criticized for years for supposedly not having enough black characters in their major movies, then for having black actors do some of the voices in the cartoon movie The Lion King.  (Critics said, What, Disney can only have black characters if they’re animals? as well as accusing Disney of casting black actors only as the voices of the villains, which isn’t even close—James Earl Jones played the central character of the king and father, Mufasa, and black actors also voiced Rafiki, Simba’s mother, one of the Nalas, and one of the Simbas’ singing voice.)  Then Disney made The Princess and the Frog, with predominantly black (and non-animal) characters, and was criticized for supposedly playing into racial stereotypes.

Song for Our Time: ‘Can’t Get Enough of Myself’

Tribute to the music of the ’50s and ’60s and the music videos of the ’80s calls out the narcissism of this generation:

Politics, Poetry, Tragedy, Comedy

New Web site offers an unusual combination of haikus, news, and conservative views:

Hainews

Themes covered and alluded to so far range from the Bible to Donald Trump.  But you have to click on the links, the text (haipertext?) of the poem, to understand what it’s talking about.

English Translation of Mark Steyn’s Interview with Bonjour le Chat

Mark Steyn writes, “A couple of days ago France’s leading feline forum, Bonjour Le Chat, interviewed me about Marvin. For non-francophones, I’ll provide a few anglo snippets once this Senate testimony’s behind me.”

C. S. Lewis: Soldier, Scholar, Poet, and Secret Agent

Fascinating new information, reported directly by the person who discovered it:

“C.S. Lewis Was a Secret Government Agent: A recent discovery unveils an unknown chapter in the life the famous Oxford Don.”
Harry Lee Poe, Christianity Today, December 10th, 2015

He happened to see an old phonograph record on Ebay, which turned out to be of a lecture that Lewis scholars never knew he had given—until now.

Muslims Mock Daesh

Speaking of helping delegitimize the terrorists, did you know that our Muslim allies and non-allies alike, as well as Israelis, are making fun of Daesh (ISIS) through sketch comedy and songs?  Check out these, from Kurds on TV in Iraq, Palestinians, and Israelis (warning, some rude content):

Happy Independence Day!

For your listening pleasure, the national anthem—think of it as exercising First Amendment rights by exercising Second Amendment rights!

‘To a Jeweler’

Found in an old Mad Magazine (1971, No. 147):

Web Comic Biblenauts Explores Bible with Humor, Compassion

A friend of a friend of a friend started drawing a Web comic a couple of months ago.  Biblenauts follows two time-traveling visitors through the stories of the Bible, starting with the first chapter.

The author isn’t exactly an orthodox believer—as his “About” page jokes, “The views and opinions expressed in this comic strip do not necessarily reflect the opinions of God or his affiliates”—but Biblenauts is occasionally both thoughtful and moving.  Here, it contemplates the creation and destruction of the world and the meaning of free will, suffering, and mercy.

Review: ‘Who Murdered the Dinosaurs?’

You might think a story that sounds as if it were about which animals killed some dinosaurs would not be very interesting.

You’d be wrong.  (“Dead wrong,” Devereux giggled.)

Frank Fleming’s first short story at Liberty Island, “Who Murdered the Dinosaurs?”, is thoroughly entertaining and frequently laugh-out-loud funny—a “First Rate Farce”, in the words of one reader.  Perhaps one should have expected nothing less from the long-time PJ Media humorist whose previous work includes the funny “FAQ on Christianity”.

A Conservative Antidote to Doonesbury

Via Liberty Island, Right-wing Riot has an interesting idea:  Take real Doonesbury strips (the comics written and drawn by liberal great Gary Trudeau for the last half century or so) and replace a fraction of the words with satirical conservative content.  (The replacements are clearly indicated in red text.)

Things You Hear on NPR: What Could Be Funnier than Losing Your Soul?

Over the weekend NPR played an interview between NPR’s Arun Rath and novelist Douglas Coupland (pronounced “Copeland”).  Coupland’s latest novel doesn’t exactly sound healthy for human consumption:

RATH: . . . I don’t quite know how I feel about this book—

COUPLAND: (Laughs)

RATH: —Meaning that it’s hilarious but it’s—it’s three hundred pages of vulgarity, almost without lapse.

Liberty Island: New Web Site for Conservative Fiction?

You’ll have heard conservatives observe that the dominant culture in America is liberal.  Mark Steyn talks about the left’s “long march through the institutions” (the schools, the churches, the movies), and suggests that it’s ultimately futile for conservatives to fight on the political battleground if we give up on the fight for the deeper culture, which our politics flow out of.

Publisher Adam Bellow wants to bring the fight to the culture.  Toward that end, earlier this year he launched Liberty Island, a Web site or online literary magazine of fiction by and/or for the conservative counterculture.

Merry Christmas!

Check out this, er, accomplished quartet!

Lyrics?

Memorial Day

To mark Memorial Day, Mark Steyn reflects on the interesting history of the Civil War song “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”.  (Note that link will expire.)

And somehow this combination — an improvised camp-meeting chorus with an in-joke verse about a Boston Scotsman — became the most popular marching song of the Union forces, the one bellowed out as Sherman’s men marched through Georgia in 1864.

Wikipedia has the lyrics.

As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.

Good Friday: Mark Steyn Reviews The Passion of the Christ

In the church year, Easter is when the we remember Christ’s resurrection and ultimate triumph over death; Good Friday is when we remember that we, in our sin, put Him to death.

In observance of Good Friday today, Mark Steyn reprints his 2004 review of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ.  (Note that this link will probably expire.)

Instead of Jesus the wimp, Mel gives us Jesus the Redeemer. He died for our sins — ie, the “violent end” is the critical bit, not just an unfortunate misunderstanding cruelly cutting short a promising career in gentle teaching. . . .

Whatever

Even at liberal NPR, this book reviewer wonders whether our culture’s descent into nihilism and narcissism hasn’t gone too far.  The review is entitled “The Apathy In ‘A Thousand Pardons’ Is Hard To Forgive”:

Given that Dee is such a precise, dry and cynical writer — and given the class resentments that his plots stoke — I wonder, not for the first time, why I don’t like his books more. Maybe the answer lies in his distinctive atmosphere: Most of Dee’s key characters are so cool, so jaded, so “whatever” — it’s like they overmedicate.

Quick Thoughts on the Superbowl

I watched it (people at my church invited me to their Superbowl party).  I thought it was an exciting game, and I don’t even watch football!  The Baltimore Ravens ran up a seemingly insurmountable lead in the first half; the San Francisco 49ers made an impressive effort and almost caught up in the second half, but ultimately were unsuccessful.