Sunday 19 May 2019

Quotations

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"We shall soon be in a world in which a man may be howled down for saying that two and two make four, in which furious party cries will be raised against anybody who says that cows have horns, in which people will persecute the heresy of calling a triangle a three-sided figure, and hang a man for maddening a mob with the news that grass is green."


G. K. Chesterton

"We continue to understand how immigration is changing our country and how it will continue to change our country. We have learned that our country must be a country of immigration as well as of integration.”

Angela Merkel speaking to an NGO that offers help with careers to immigrants and their children, the occasion which she chose to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the German constitution.



"It is quite legitimate for nations to treat those [their] differences as a sacred inheritance and guard them at all costs.” 

Pope Pius XII in the encyclical Summi Pontificatus in 1939.

“The term ‘nation’ designates a community based in a given territory and distinguished by its culture. Catholic social doctrine holds that the family and the nation are both natural societies, not the product of mere convention.”

Pope John Paul in his final book, Memory and Identity.



“In the US, many on the Left cannot understand why conservative Christians vote for Donald Trump. I don’t like Trump at all, and I don’t support some of his policies, but as a traditional Christian I don’t fear him. I fear the Left. Its politicians have affirmatively demonised Christians. They really do believe that we are not just wrong, but evil.’’

Rod Dreher



"There are many who argue that rising inequality is a driver for populism. I am a little cautious about this, at least in the context of the UK, simply for the reason that inequality (contrary to what nearly everyone thinks they know) is not, in fact, rising. As the IFS has pointed out, income inequality has remained pretty consistent since the 1990s and, since the Great Recession of the late 2000s, earnings growth has generally been greatest for lower earners.

"Nonetheless, economic insecurity is clearly a contributing factor. But I would place greater weight on cultural insecurity – the fear that their culture is under threat and being marginalised. Parts of society not only feel economically disadvantaged but culturally disadvantaged.

"In recent decades, we have seen dramatic changes in the nature of our society – changes which, I would argue, are overwhelmingly positive. Conservatives should welcome changes that have made society more open and diverse and have meant that life has become much better for women, gay people and ethnic minorities.

"But elements of society look back to a period where their position in society was more secure and stable, their culture dominant and with an expectation that that culture would remain dominant throughout the life times of their children and grandchildren."



David Gauke, Lord Chancellor of England.


“Can everyone look at their hands please?”


Joan Ryan MP addressing a Change UK rally on Thursday which three dozen people attended. People held out their hands in front them.

“That’s it, it’s there, the future is in your hands.”



39 comments:

  1. I do not think it is for supporting him in a time of political cholera that Trump issued the pardon. I rather hope it is to signal that he sees the sheer intellectual industry of the man — his uncanny ability to produce (in the twilight of his years after a period of some difficulty) so many and so worthy books.

    Secondly, I think Trump must simply admire that one who has been brought low in reputation and wealth, “made a byword” to many who once were close, had the fortitude, after his various penalties and prison, not to bow the head, not to retreat in sullen exile and hide from his detractors, but to stand high, walk into controversy and enter his opinions into the great factional debates of our day.

    There is a fighting gene in Black, and perhaps that element, rather than his various newspaper, book and panel defences of the President, attracted the attention of the White House holder, who has learned that returning fire in this age of instant and infinite comment is actually something of a route to honour in itself. It was a fine gesture.

    So well done, Mr. President, and well-deserved, Mr. Black.

    Rex Murphy
    https://nationalpost.com/opinion/rex-murphy-what-donald-trump-would-like-in-a-man-like-conrad-black

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  2. Special Report Unveils Vast “Dark Money” Network on the Left

    This study by the Capital Research Center documents a shadowy web into which nearly $600 million flowed in 2017, the most recent year for which tax returns are available. Operating under the aegis of “philanthropy,” this network is housed in and staffed by a for-profit, privately held consultancy called Arabella Advisors, LLC.* Arabella manages four nonprofit entities—the New Venture Fund, Sixteen Thirty Fund, Windward Fund, and Hopewell Fund—each of which shares an address and interlocking officers with Arabella.

    Philanthropic advising is lucrative for Arabella, in part because its clients are so wealthy: it claims its donors’ assets are worth more than $100 billion. Between 2007 and 2017, Arabella’s four nonprofit Funds paid a combined $76 million in management fees to Arabella Advisors. Some of the nation’s largest grantmaking institutions, including the Rockefeller, Packard, and Kellogg Foundations are donors to the funds managed by Arabella. It remains unclear why such large and powerful institutions seek outside philanthropic consulting, but presumably a significant part of Arabella’s appeal lies in its ability to obscure large financial transactions.

    The line between philanthropy and political advocacy at Arabella is blurry indeed. Most of the projects hosted by the four Funds and financed by Arabella’s donors advocate for controversial positions on social issues, for the expansion of government—or both. Yet thanks to the unique financial arrangements of the network and the lack of donor disclosure, it is impossible to trace which organization pays for the various campaigns and political movements spawned by Arabella’s Funds.

    According to the nonprofit organizations’ tax returns, between 2013 and 2017, the Arabella network received a staggering $1.6 billion in contributions, which it has used to advance its donors’ agendas through dozens of “front” groups and “astroturf” initiatives. The Arabella network of funds is also growing rapidly: from 2013 to 2017, the network’s revenues grew by an incredible 392 percent. Arabella’s network often plays host to highly influential groups on the Left. For example, the Democracy Alliance, a network of donors co-founded by billionaire George Soros, has used the New Venture Fund and Sixteen Thirty Fund to host at least eight projects that don’t disclose their original funders.

    https://capitalresearch.org/article/crc-exposes-left-wing-dark-money/
    Full report, a 36 pages PDF:
    https://capitalresearch.org/app/uploads/CRC_Arabella-Advisors-Dark-Money.pdf

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  3. “This is Europe,” said Val gravely. “Here money is not made. It is inherited or else it is slowly saved over a period of many years and maybe in three generations a family moves up into a higher class.”

    “Think of something people want — like we do.”

    “That is because there is more money to want with in America. Everything that people want here has been thought of long ago.”

    F. Scott Fitzgerald
    Love in the Night
    Saturday Evening Post (14 March 1925)
    https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/f/fitzgerald/f_scott/short/chapter8.html

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  4. In 1921 in a letter to Edmund Wilson, he wrote, "God damn the continent of Europe. It is of merely antiquarian interest. Rome is only a few years behind Tyre and Babylon. The negroid streak creeps northward to defile the Nordic race. Already the Italians have the souls of blackamoors. Raise the bars of immigration and permit only Scandinavians, Teutons, Anglo-Saxons and Celts to enter. France made me sick. Its silly pose as the thing the world has to save. I think it’s a shame that England and America didn’t let Germany conquer Europe. It’s the only thing that would have saved the fleet of tottering old wrecks. My reactions were all philistine, anti-socialistic, provincial and racially snobbish. I believe at last in the white man’s burden. We are as far above the modern Frenchman as he is above the Negro. Even in art! Italy has no one. When Anatole France dies French literature will be a silly jealous rehashing of technical quarrels. They’re thru and done. You may have spoken in jest about New York as the capital of culture but in 25 years it will be just as London is now. Culture follows money and all the refinements of aestheticism can’t stave off its change of seat (Christ! what a metaphor). We will be the Romans in the next generations as the English are now."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 'England and America didn’t let Germany conquer Europe'

      What precipitated the entry of the Americans in the First World War was a telegram sent at the time by Zimmerman, the German Foreign Minister to his Ambassador in Mexico. Everything would have been O.K. for the Germans but for the inquisitiveness of British intelligence who managed to break the German cipher. The text of the telegram was amazing. It started by telling the Mexican government of the German intention to start unrestricted submarine warfare, and then went on:

      “We make Mexico a proposal of alliance on the following basis: make war together, make peace together, generous financial support and an understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona…”

      The ambassador was further instructed to contact the Mexican President if war broke out and to ask for his services to recruit Japan into the alliance. Japan’s reward, although this was not in the telegram, would have been the State of California.

      https://www.thearticle.com/the-telegraph-reshaped-international-politics-heres-how#

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  5. Harold Macmillan, a generation later, said we English would be Greeks to the Americans' Romans.

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  6. Evelyn Waugh said wonderfully and truly, “We are all American at puberty. We die French.”

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  7. Fat, pigeyed alcoholic and dyspeptic but talented Evelyn Waugh would have earned a big improvement to die French.
    Saw a recent photo of Black and Trump together. Fat, pigeyed, self-important and lard-arsed old men who like to criticize others for their appearances, but Conrad Black can definitely write.

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    1. "Fat, pigeyed alcoholic and dyspeptic"

      Sounds French to me:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gérard_Depardieu

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    2. Yes, indeed. I am not sure, though, that Waugh's personal appearance has any bearing on the truth of the remark I quoted.

      https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/disgusting-ear-trumpet-is-blast-from-waugh-s-past-w8s65qqnf

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    3. Depardieu is fixing to die Russian... In February 2013, he registered as a resident of Saransk.

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  8. Everyone says that and it is true but people do not praise Lady Black - yet she writes wonderfully. She is not just a pretty face. Both Donald Trump and Conrad Black are oddly full of self doubt which is what drives them on.

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  9. Talented is not a strong enough word for Waugh. Were he not on the right he might be considered the greatest novelist in post 1914 England. He is almost as good as Conrad which is saying very much and comparable with his friend Graham Greene. But I am not qualified to judge because I am ashamed to say I have not got round to Laurence or Ulysses.

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    Replies
    1. Do me a favor and add Kingsley Amis to your list... 'He is almost as good as' Waugh...

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    2. I read several of his novels plus his poetry and journalism and didn't think anything of any of it. I didn't read Lucky Jim. He patronised Edmund Crispin the detective story writer in his memoirs but EC - pseudonym for Bruce Montgomery - was much better writer. KA said BM was an alcoholic. No doubt but the words pot kettle and black come to mind.

      Friends of mine were given the task of looking after KA for a weekend in Swansea. I got the idea that it was a job of work.

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    3. I reread this lovely book last summer after revisiting a good pub, The Magdalen Arms, in the Iffley Rd in Oxford. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moving_Toyshop

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    4. I just borrowed it. Thank you!

      https://openlibrary.org/works/OL3926783W/The_moving_toyshop

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    5. At my recommendation? From where did you borrow it, if I am not being too inquisitive?

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    6. Intimate auto-documentary of Amis here:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MXMVeAbxRg

      I enjoyed it.

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    7. https://openlibrary.org/works/OL3926783W/The_moving_toyshop

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    8. Thanks for the link David. You've made my day!

      Delete
    9. @Toma
      Wow - thanks, I am so pleased to hear that :).
      I immensely enjoy your contributions and admire your googling skills ;).


      Delete
    10. Thanx! I'll show your post to my mom: she thinks I'm a lazy good-for-nothing...

      Delete
  10. The human race has not devised any way of dissolving barriers, getting to know the other chap fast, breaking the ice, that is one-tenth as handy and efficient as letting you and the other chap, or chaps, cease to be totally sober at about the same rate in agreeable surroundings.

    ‘Everyday Drinking’
    By KINGSLEY AMIS

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    Replies
    1. Kingsley Amis was an alcoholic which is a painful and boring thing to be, but he made a very good point when he said: “No pleasure is worth giving up for the sake of two more years in a geriatric home in Weston-super-Mare"

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    2. 'an alcoholic... is a painful and boring thing to be'

      Not always: look at Jean Claude Drunker...
      https://i2.wp.com/www.alexanderboot.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/JunckerDrunk.jpg?w=3216

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    3. Second that... I'd rather die in a ditch or frozen on a bus station bench than live in one of those...

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  11. In recent decades, we have seen dramatic changes in the nature of our society – changes which, I would argue, are overwhelmingly positive.

    But he doesn't argue it does he? He merely asserts it. These changes are good because I say so.

    That's political debate today.

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    Replies
    1. It would be good to hear why he thinks this is so and why he elides greater job opportunities for women with homosexual marriage and much more immigration. These things are discrete.

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  12. The Catholic Bishops' Conference of Ireland released a statement on Monday ahead of European elections this week, reminding voters of the Christian values which motivated the founding of the European Union. The Bishops also warn voters of the rise of populism and address the Irish concerns over Brexit.

    https://www.indcatholicnews.com/news/37137

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    1. Catholic bishops strongly supported General Franco in the Spanish Civil War and he was far right. They strongly De Valera who was as nationalist as you can get. Wanting to leave the EU and stop immigration are not far right or even nationalist.

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    2. 'Christian values... motivated the founding of the European Union.'

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  13. "We must create a Central European Economic Association through common customs treaties to include France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Austria-Hungary and perhaps Italy, Sweden and Norway. This association will not have any common constitutional supreme authority and all members will be formally equal but in practice under German leadership and must stabilise Germany’s dominance over central Europe”.

    Imperial Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg on 9 September 1914
    https://campaignforanindependentbritain.org.uk/witness-to-history/

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  14. Very interesting. I wish I had studied this period. And the Nazis were also great believers in a European economic union.

    In 1990 Nicholas Ridley famously called European Monetary Union 'A German racket designed to take over the whole of Europe' - a remark he did not expect Dominic Lawson to print - and had to resign from Margaret Thatcher's cabinet for doing so.

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    1. 'the Nazis were also great believers in a European economic union'

      You bet:

      'Striking similarities: The origins of the European Economic Community'

      David Blake discusses the Plan for a European Economic Community that was developed at the University of Berlin in 1942. There are striking similarities with the European Economic Community that was introduced in 1957 – and which became the foundation stone of the European Union.

      https://briefingsforbrexit.com/striking-similarities-the-origins-of-the-european-economic-community/

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  15. Who invented One Nation Conservatism?

    Sunday, 8 October, 2017
    Disraeli is widely believed to have originated it. Several years ago, however, Alistair Lexden established that he had never used the famous phrase which first appeared much later. He has pointed this out many times since then—and did so again in a letter published in The Times on October 6. Not only was Disraeli’s Manchester speech remarkable for its length, it was also delivered “without reference to a note”, as the 15th Earl of Derby, who was present, recorded in his diary on 3 April 1872.

    Sir, Disraeli would have been astonished to hear that he “defined One Nation Conservatism” in his Manchester speech 145 years ago, as Philip Collins claims (“May disguises the Tories’ deeper problems”, Comment, Oct.6). Nursing his voice for nearly three and a half hours with the aid of two bottles of white brandy, Dizzy dealt with social issues in two paragraphs, which proposed “the consolidation of existing sanitary legislation”. He believed that Britain would always be divided into two nations of rich and poor “between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy”. The first Tory leader to speak of One Nation was Stanley Baldwin more than 50 years later.

    Lord Lexden
    House of Lords

    https://www.alistairlexden.org.uk/news/who-invented-one-nation-conservatism

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    1. 'Nursing his voice for nearly three and a half hours with the aid of two bottles of white brandy...'

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  16. The Conservative Party is haemorrhaging support so badly it should carry a Do Not Resuscitate sign.
    Joanna Williams

    I think it entirely possible that the Tory party will disappear before Theresa May does.
    Reader’s comment
    The Conservative Woman

    “About Jesus Christ and the Church, I simply know they’re just one thing, and we shouldn’t complicate the matter.”
    Joan of Arc

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    Replies
    1. "I think it entirely possible that the Tory party will disappear before Theresa May does."

      Ha, ha, ha, that is so funny :).

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