FAILURE AT THE GATES OF VICTORY

COME HEIL OR HIGH WATER?

by Colin Liddell

Virtue and vice are not, as the Left supposes, determined by a line that divides humanity into "the Blessed" and "the Damned." That is a very Manichean, Judaic, and inherently non-European concept, which has, like some toxic chemical, been present in the moral bloodstream of our civilisation for too long, and with which Western Christianity has long struggled.

No, that simplistic view of good and evil creates a retarded morality that is unable to recognise the organic complexity of reality, and which thus cuts across it with a brutal and unforgiving blade. True virtue is, as Aristotle expounded, a Golden Mean between two unhealthy extremes. Between Cowardice and Rashness, lies the golden virtue of Courage. Between Humility and Vanity, Pride glitters in all its glory...

MILO, TWITTER, AND THE ART OF "PERMANENT SUSPENSION"

by Colin Liddell

Twitter recently deleted the account of Milo Yiannoupolous (the on-line electronic Morrissey of our age). The social media company probably believes it is re-enacting the "wise" policy of the Roman king, Tarquin the Proud, who, when asked for advice by his son on how best to control the querulous city of Gabii, merely went to his garden and silently cut down the tallest poppies.

#YOU AIN'T NO REALIST, BRUV

by Robert Henderson

The latest Muslim atrocities in the West (Paris, San Bernadino, and London) have been met with the frantic recitation of the liberal internationalist’s favourite mantra to explain away such terrorism, namely, it is not committed by Muslims.

The attack in the Leytonstone tube station in outer London set the ball rolling in Britain when the lone black attacker shouted “This is for Syria” prompting the response “You ain’t no Muslim bruv” from an onlooker, a black Londoner judged by his accent and the fact that he addressed the attacker as “bruv,” a term only common amongst blacks in Britain. The context also suggests that the man is a Muslim.

JUDD NOT LEST YE BE JUDDED

by Guy Somerset

Recently a former actress by the name of Ashley Judd, who incidentally appeared nude in each of her remotely memorable roles, was on social media and accused opponents of her alma mater’s basketball team of cheating. While such verbiage is the common and even expected grousing during such matches, reaction to her general mantra “We wuz robbed!” came swift and withering.

Apparently several users of the Twitter messaging system were unconvinced Miss Judd was qualified to determine whether unsportsmanlike conduct had occurred and proceeded to let her know so using a variety of colorful metaphors. Her emotions in tatters, she appeared on national television to pan for cameras and unambiguously state in her sassiest tone, “…and by the way I am pressing charges!”

Throughout the land a legion of millionaires from Fox’s Bill O’Reilly to MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart nodded in agreement; they being the types who can afford free speech protection even absent that explicitly granted mere plebeians by the Constitution.

MISS AMERICA: U MAD, WHITEY?

by Andy Nowicki

So, out of fifty hot pieces of ass, they went with the swarthiest, most foreign-looking ass of the bunch.

Mighty white of them!

Yes, that's right... In case you hadn't heard, Miss America has gone out of its way to acknowledge the "ethnic other" this year. Out of the typical bevy of beaming babes putting themselves on display last Sunday night in that inimitable, adorably pre-feminist manner – widely grinning, regally waving, strutting their formidably sexy stuff in sparkling evening dresses and curve-hugging bikinis, and guilelessly delivering vapid answers to stupid questions from judges, in the best beauty pageant tradition – the assessors of the 2013 event (which included out-of-the-closet NSYNC-er Lance Bass; what the hell does he know about girls, anyhow?) chose the one from New York; the exotic, masala-flavored chickadee of the litter, a 24-year old named Nina Davuluri.

THE 'SHIT HAPPENS' FOREIGN POLICY

America's answer to Polandball.

by Colin Liddell

"The West is the best and we'll do the rest," sang Jim Morrison on that damning 1967 indictment of poor parenting and pharmacological excess, The End. Despite it's intended irony, the lyric nevertheless reflected the realities underlying US foreign policy at the time, which consisted of believing in the Western way, stepping up to the mark when challenged, taking responsibility for what happened on one's watch, and trying to win in the cold light of day and with the world's media watching. Heck, America still gets it in the neck for that famous photo of one gook shooting another gook in the head.

With the Soviet Union doing such a good job of being a shining beacon of progress in those days with its cheap shots against neo-colonialism, inequalities of wealth, and mean differences in height and body mass, America had to do its best to fight the good fight and to go down with the ship when holed below the waterline, as it did in the 1970s, a decade which can be likened to one enormous session of navel gazing: cue Apocalypse Now.