To call all of modern art crap would be overstatement, but some of it certainly is.

Not a one of the Hallelujah Chorus audience stood up – they just stayed on their fat butts, mostly with sullen, bored expressions. None of them knew the tradition, or if any of them did, they couldn’t care less. No honor is to be given to the majesty of their religion nor the beauty of its music. That’s my takeaway from the clip. The continuing obliteration of our culture is nothing but the filling of a vacuum.

I think accounts of the New York draft riots give some evidence of the degree of altruism that many Northern whites felt toward the Southern slaves. Also, I’d like to point out something often forgotten: at the onset of hostilities, Northern politicians and journalists assured the public that it would be a cakewalk, i.e. over in weeks. I use the term “cakewalk” to resonate with modern events in the Middle East where Saddam Hussein’s regime was expected to collapse like a deck of cards. The party of Lincoln had a neoconnish aspect even at its inception.

Mencken had a contrary view of the subject, FWIW.

I caddied many years at a ritzy suburban club, and it was straight out of Caddyshack. In fact, that was a favorite movie to be shown at the annual caddy banquet. The caddies, pro staff, and membership recognized themselves in the movie, and were very good-hearted about it. I have many more positive than negative memories of the place. But God, I’m glad the Judge Smail character never caught me sneaking on at dusk to play the course . . .

Course architecture was ruined by the failure of golf’s governing bodies to address the problem of the steady upward creep of distance of travel of the ball, in my view. High-tech design of shafts and clubheads, better ball aerodynamics, earlier, better swing instruction, greater athleticism – all combine to give landing zones 50 yards beyond what the holes were designed for, unless you push the tee way-the-heck back practically to the swimming pool snack bar. The consequence is that beautiful historic courses on limited plots of land are totally uncompetitive to the modern pro, who will dissect them with flip wedges where 4-irons were needed as recently as the early 1960’s. The answer should have been to gradually, progressively, numb the ball, but Jack Nicklaus brought that concept into disrepute a decade or two ago by proposing to grossly overdo it – to reduce the land requirement to the extent that it became a plebian, not patrician game. Now, as a consequence of the outlandish distance and accuracy of the best players, we have tricked-up courses where three feet off the fairway, you have knee-high jungle (and likely loss-of-ball), and hard, skinned, steeply-contoured greens where six-inch difference in landing point can mean 20-yard difference in finishing point. That’s Putt-Putt architecture, in my view – you’d might as well have little windmills on the green – and t’Hell with it.

Like you, Steve, I list golf course architect among my fantasy alternative careers, although I’m much less knowledgeable on the subject than you (albeit strikingly opinionated nonetheless). Had I followed that route, I would be known for Thompson’s Elementary Precepts of Golf Course Design:

1) Punish bad shots;
2) Don’t punish good shots.

Modern design violates precept 2) big-time. I haven’t played in many years, but if I played an elite modern course like you describe, today, I’d enjoy it like a weekend in the dungeons of the Spanish Inquisition. Admittedly, it’s the lashings of precept 1) that would raise the wettest spray from my bloodied back, but it’s number 2) that would truly rankle the spirit. You can have these Precepts, Steve – I’m not using them at the moment.

I think the first time I heard Jews described as non-white was in a radio broadcast by William Luther Pierce, who was one of the nastiest anti-semites who ever lived. He was the furthest thing from a holocaust denier: he thought the murder of millions of innocents was a glorious accomplishment that the Nazis could be proud of, and should be magnified, not denied. He cast the “non-white” slur in order to shock, and he succeeded, as far as I was concerned. Why would Weiner want to embrace the ideology of so hateful a person? For being intelligent, why are Jews so damn stupid?

There were a couple of cultural phenomena in the 50’s that embodied a Jewish sensibility and also contributed substantially to the glamour of Americanism that, to me, anyway, attaches to the era. One is Rod Serling and the Twilight Zone. Nearly every episode taught a wholesome lesson of self respect and respect for others, and mental independence and resistance to the group-think that leads to mob rule. I don’t think this topic could have held such resonance for Serling had he not been a Jew (albeit converted to Unitarian-Universalism). The other is Mad Magazine. Much of its energies in the ’50 were devoted to mocking the crassness of advertising and the whole mass consumer culture. If there was conformism back then, it was the foil that allowed the daring iconoclasm and ‘hipness’ of the magazine to shine the brighter. Mad didn’t become preachy and didactic until the ’60’s — 1963 maybe, that watershed year. Oh, and we mustn’t forget Superman – “truth, justice, and the American way” – we really believed it back then – who could doubt the man of steel. In this forum, where vibrations of a negative sort may be floating about, I’m proud to express gratitude to Jews who made me a better person.

The 50’s were the era of exuberance and boundless self-confidence – anyone who believes it was staid, hidebound and stifling could not be more wrong. Think of the cars — every one was a bold fashion statement, with annual model changes, just like Paris couture. We mimicked no one — we were the best in everything we did – everyone knew that – and it was the world’s task to rise to our level. And at last, as the culmination of the decade’s arrow of progress, we had a beautiful glamorous First Lady who wore the latest fashions and a handsome, rich, charming, virile President – we had arrived and come into our own – and then the dream died in a spray of skull fragments and brain matter, and the balloon was punctured. Those of us of a certain age get real misty-eyed when talking about the 50’s. Maybe not everything we remember was real, but it was pretty near the best reality that could be imagined.

"Pilpul" is what most people mean when they say "argue like a Jew" – see here and here.

Polls of most-hated basketball players from all schools have been done, and the pattern is always the same. For example, it’s agreed that Aaron Craft is a walking compendium of hateful white-boy qualities: he’s courteous, studious, modest — the list goes on and on. This article doesn’t even mention the worst thing he’s done: he stood before a camera and solved a Rubik’s Cube. How white can you be?

Benchley was a wonderful writer. When I was a little kid in the late 1950’s I ransacked the local libraries trying to track down every one of his published works. I still remember being on the phone to the circulation desk at the Ohio State University trying to learn if they had “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea or David Copperfield” on their shelves. I couldn’t seem to make myself understood – I still can’t imagine why.

Material affluence allows people free time to have hobbies, and I think the number one hobby always will be, doting on one’s kids and trying to live their lives for them. Thus, the rise of neontocracy is merely an aspect of the history of hobbies.

On the other hand, the wealthy English gentry are notoriously detached from their children, preferring to keep them out of sight by consigning them to nannies and boarding schools. Maybe my theory is plausible but mistaken, or at least the latter, anyway.

Match the name with the description: "Nice fella, wouldn't mind hoisting a brew with him" and "stomach-churningly repulsive, don't want to breathe the same air with him." The names are a) Donald Sterling; and b) Adam Silver. It's too bad this site isn't set up for poll-taking.

The NYT is employing an H. Dumptian definition of "transgender," i.e. "When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less."

First-cousin marriage was very common among the Mennonite and Quaker families in this country through the end of the 18th century, and in certain branches (like the Quakertown founding families) the practice persisted to the middle of the 19th century. It was a reflection of religious conscience, not ignorance. And, we should not forget that William and Mary, and Victoria and Albert, were first cousins, and they weren't Arkansas hillbillies. Legislators should keep their ill-informed pop-eugenic notions to themselves and refrain from meddling with other people's marriage choices.

I'm fascinated by the magnitude of the weapons cache found at the Rivonia farm:

http://www.censorbugbear.org/black-racism/terrorism/nelson-mandela-the-bombing-record

The 144 tons of ammonium nitrate jumps out at me. The Hiroshima bomb was 16 kilotons, so only 0.144 kilotons, or one percent of Hiroshima (after blending with fuel oil and assuming prills and oil has the same destructive power as TNT) doesn't sound like much, but it's more impressive if you realize that the destructive power of a bomb increases with only the two-thirds power of energy release, and not linearly. Thus, by this calculation, a 100 ratio of energy is only a 21.5 ratio of destruction, and Mandela's cache of bomb material was 4.65% of a Hiroshima equivalent. Moreover, if you subdivide the cache, you increase the destructive equivalency. The Oklahoma City bombing was performed with 2 to 4 tons of material, I think I remember reading. If you split it into 52 bombs of 3 tons each (after blending with fuel oil), each will be one over 305 of a Hiroshima, 52 of which is 17 percent. The Oklahoma event killed 168 people, so 52 such bombs could kill 8736. The Hiroshima bomb killed about 100,000, 17 percent of which is 17,000, so my calculation of 17 percent Hiroshima equivalency is clearly a little on the high side – it should be more like 9 percent. The difference may be in the radiation effects.

As for the 21.6 tons of aluminum power – the obvious purpose is to make thermite, for which it is the essential ingredient to make 85 tons. The best use to which thermite can be put is to melt structural steel, which is useful for bringing down skyscrapers and bridges. A couple of tons could probably have brought down each of the twin trade towers – call it 4 tons to kill 3000 people, so 85 could kill 63,750 if you find enough really big skyscrapers. And one ton of black powder – three people were killed by maybe a pound at the Boston Marathon, so a ton should be good for 6,000. The wild card is the 210,000 hand grenades. You could do great things if you distributed them as party favors at children's birthday gatherings, but actual efficiency of deployment would undoubtedly be much less. Any way you count them (plus the 48,000 antipersonnel mines) you've got the better part of a Hiroshima's worth of WMD; maybe mult-Hiro's.

The point that I'm leading up to is that if anyone were to compile a list of historic WMD caches amassed by depraved criminal madmen bent on wholesale human destruction, the accomplishment of Mandela and his buddies at Rivonia Farm would surely rank fairly high, at least in the non-governmental division. Our gentle departed Yoda deserves credit for thinking and acting on such a grand scale.

To anonymous at 12/8/13 6:57pm: Does Bibi understand that the techniques of IED's, truck bombs, bombing of fast food restaurants, etc. employed by Mandela's Spear of the Nation terrorist organization are the same as those employed against his own countrymen? And Mandela's destiny to become a wealthy and universally adored elder statesmen will certainly give renewed heart and courage to the terrorist forces arrayed against his own nation? Maybe Bibi refuses to attend the funeral because he has a shred of decency in his soul.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umkhonto_we_Sizwe

This is an excellent link, to what appears to be a very informative site:
http://www.censorbugbear.org/black-racism/terrorism/nelson-mandela-the-bombing-record
My apologies, if it has already been posted. A lot of the links on the site are broken. I understand there's some kind of "way-back machine" that gives access to deleted-but-archived pages, which I've never used. Can anyone give brief instructions on how to use that service?

A lot more than who/whom and its/it's will be gone. The subjunctive mood and several verb tenses are already on their way out the door. Twitter and sports blogs are the new language paradigm.

Most people who use "whom" nowadays use it incorrectly, by the way. Steve almost always gets it wrong.

"Whether your statements are empirically accurate is irrelevant" – Charles Murray couldn't be more wrong about that. The defining characteristic of thoughtcrime is that truth is aggravation, not exculpation. Irrefutability is at the heart of the rancour that forbidden speech inspires.

If Cedric and Frederick were second cousins, then Billy is second cousin once removed to Cedric (not nephew).

If criminals lose drugs as a funding source, what will they turn to next, to recover their lost income? Burglary, auto theft, carjacking, kidnapping? As it is, they have a pleasing habit of killing each other, and perhaps drug dealing is a desirable way of keeping our criminals occupied.

How hard can it be to lay the rumors to rest? Two barbers need to be bribed, that's all. The hair clippings will prove or disprove a match on the Y chromosome.
Likewise, you'd think there might be some barbers employed by the British royal family who are in a position to earn some money on the side.

Have you ever reflected on how much injury is done to clarity and rigor of expression in the English language because of the absence of a noun form of "chronic?" Critical is to crisis as chronic is to . . . what? Whenever the word is needed, "crisis" is usually chosen no matter how wrong it is. Anyone who could introduce and popularize the new word would be a great benefactor. Perhaps it could be borrowed from another language. Does anyone have any suggestions?

"Qaddafi deserved a trial" is nonsense? Isn't it self-evident that execution without trial always serves an interest — Qaddafi had a tale to tell, and someone would prefer that tale not be told? Is that interest the same as your interest? Did Oswald, J. W. Booth, and Bin Laden (or whoever it was) not have tales, and are we all not all poorer for not hearing them? I hold it as one of life's basic truths that knowledge is always better than lack of knowledge, and as for anyone who cannot understand that — well, the letters "LOC" pop into my mind == "Lower Order of Creation."

You nailed it exactly in your post of 4/26 8:35pm, Steve:

"If he settled the issue right now, it would be forgotten by the 2012 election."

Obama and his handlers aren't stupid. They knew that the controversy would be prolonged by releasing a Photoshop confection instead of an original. There's a lot of barking loons out there, and Obama wants them to bark as long and loudly as possible. Of this I am absolutely

POSITIVE, adj. Mistaken at the top of one's voice.
— Ambrose Bierce (Devil's Dictionary)

Regarding my earlier post: A lot of people have noticed that this is an obvious Acrobat/Photoshop document, e.g.

http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/2011/04/27/obamas-birth-certificate/

and maybe Acrobat can process a grubby-looking original in a highly automated fashion. So this is not a legitimate cause of wonderment, and my earlier post doesn't add much to the conversation.

Some comments on other blogs are just plain nuts, e.g. the fact the attending physician has died since then suggests a conspiracy. Maybe it is time for the whole issue to die down. Remove both my posts if you feel like it, Steve.

Here's the link to the long-form birth certificate that I just found on Drudge:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/birth-certificate-long-form.pdf

As a physical entity, just what in the world is it? Look at the left border, where the page disappears into a bound book, and the top border, where there's a nearly undetectable blend with a background paper, and the right border, where the blend is undetectable. There's not a crease or thumbprint on it. Do you think that's a 50-year old document? Do you think that pattern of paper even existed in 1961? Above all, look at the pale nimbus surrounding every character of the written and printed text. Obviously, everything in the image was copied from some other document, using Photoshop or similar, and a lot of work was involved. I couldn't have done it in less than a day, though I'm not good at Photoshop. Do you think the Hawaii registrar's office expends that much effort on every routine document of this type? The situation has taken a turn to the really, really strange, as if it wasn't odd enough already.

I think we all have a basic biological urge toward exogamy, which conduces to the good of the species. After a few generations of marrying into neighboring farm families, within a few kilometers radius, the personalities and other attributes of our neighbors become blandly homogeneous, and the marriageable chicks are all dull as dishwater. But ahh, those exotic, alluring babes beyond the furthest range of hills! Time to pick up the lance and go in search of adventure!
I'm equal parts Scotch Irish and German Swiss, but I don't find the Irish or Swiss girls particularly appealing. But I certainly linger over the images of France and Spain. Do others have that same perception, that their own ethnicity is less appealing than that of a remote (but not too remote) region?