By Wayne Allensworth I recently finished reading J.D. Vance’s memoir, Hillbilly Elegy. The takeaways from that reading include: Vance’s rejection of fatalistic hopelessness. Hopelessness is pervasive among Vance’s people, and many have fallen into drug addiction, which has spurred on the collapse of the family. Encouraged by grandparents who expended so much of their lives and energy raising...
A Fine Madness: Biological Males in Women’s Olympic Events
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By Wayne Allensworth By now, all of you have registered the public outrage over biological males boxing females in the Olympics. Social conservatives have expressed dismay over the pummeling the former have given the latter. They often mistake what is going on in the boxing competition in Paris for “trans” athletes (biological men who have “transitioned”) beating up women. In this case, the...
Is Globalism Vulnerable? (An American Perestroika?)
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By Wayne Allensworth Ann Coulter, no fan of former President Donald Trump, says that she will nevertheless vote for him in November. What tipped the balance in his favor after Coulter said she had considered not voting at all? Trump’s choice of J.D. Vance as his running mate. If Trump had been true to past form and chosen Nicky Haley, Coulter would have sat this one out. But Vance is different...
Summertime
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By Wayne Allensworth In the summertime of my boyhood memories, time moved slower and each day was a discovery. The shadows were gobbled up quickly in the hazy, humid mornings. In those days, houses were around us, but at a bit of distance. In many cases, the yards were big and lots of what you might call “natural areas” were within the view from our front porch, where we hand-cranked...
Bye, Bob (Bob Newhart, R.I.P.)
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by Tom Piatak As a child of the 1970s, Saturday nights on CBS were a delight. Theyfeatured The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Bob Newhart Show.The first was the first prime time TV show I remember liking. The second I eventually came to like even more. I found Newhart, who played psychologist Robert Hartley—knownuniversally on the show as “Bob”—to be instantly likable. I also found the weekly...
Hawley: Whistleblowers Confirm Lax Security at Trump Rally
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By R. Cort Kirkwood (The New American) Whistleblowers have revealed that security at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where an assassin almost murdered former President Donald Trump, was “loose” and that most of the personnel on Trump’s protective detail were not Secret Service (USSS) agents. In a letter to Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, GOP Senator Josh Hawley...
What to Make of All This? (Some thoughts on the current scene)
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By Wayne Allensworth I’m trying to keep my head above water in the flood of information about recent events spurting out of mass media, including social media, and here are some thoughts that have crossed my mind: Judging by what the investigation into the Trump assassination attempt has come up with so far — that Thomas Matthew Crooks was a loner, was bullied at school, posted a creepy message...
Vance Goes There: America is not an Idea
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By Wayne Allensworth Yes, it was just a speech, and Vance is a politician, but he went to the core of the problem we face in the political realm in his remarks at the Republican National Convention: Vance was heartfelt and, I believe, sincere in what he said last night. America is not an abstraction, we shouldn’t be asked to fight and strive and die for abstractions, but instead for a place and a...
A Few Thoughts on the Trump Assassination Attempt
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By Wayne Allensworth Initial reports on an event of this magnitude are usually garbled or erroneous, and we will undoubtedly learn more about what took place in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday soon enough. But, as of Monday morning, there is enough to go on to offer some preliminary thoughts. Trump probably put this election away by surviving the attack and showing some grit in doing so. The...
Re-enchanting Our Disenchanted World
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The fate of our times is characterized by rationalization and intellectualization and, above all, by the disenchantment of the world. — Max Weber: Essays in Sociology By Wayne Allensworth I craned my neck to see the magnificent ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. I felt the exhilarating sensation of a tingle running through my scalp as I gazed at the Creation, the Fall, the Expulsion from the...
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