First Word

In the documentary called Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, the droll Ben (more…)

There are basically two different models of conservatism (more…)

Every dictionary I have consulted offers an unsatisfactory (more…)

Yiddish, according to some, was a language designed so that jews (more…)

The best argument for a liturgical calendar is that having a ceremonial calendar seems to be an inescapable concept. I am not there yet, but I have to admit that our secular civic-religious state, built on the ruins of a calendarless Protestantism, proffers a calendar that veritably bristles with memorials. February, for example, is designated Black History Month. So, to honor it in my own way, I propose to quote Hegel on Black History. After listening to his discussion, it will be possible to state rather unhesitatingly what Hegel’s view of Black History Month would be. (more…)

Guess which of the following are honored at Westminster Theological Seminary with a day off. You may select more than one of course. (Note: you may regard one of the selections as a joke.) (more…)

And now comes Rev Michael Eric Dyson to defend Martin Luther King’s plagiarism.

The facts can be summarized rather succinctly. (more…)

In a discussion with a co-worker last week, I discovered with shock that some people are still not aware of M. L. King’s chronic cheating: plagiarism in his literary production, and serial adultery and worse in his personal life. The burden of this post will be to examine the discussion of this facet of King’s life given by Rev. Michael Eric Dyson in a book summarized elsewhere. Page numbers in parentheses refer to that work. (more…)

In his book, I May Not Get There With You (full bibliog. info at bottom), Rev. Michael Dyson discussed a variety of contemporary topics in racial politics using the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. (hereafter: MLK) as springboard. He is clearly upset that conservatives of many stripes and variations have appropriated the MLK mythos, and wants to set MLK’s iconic status back in service to radical politics. Actually, blacks, whites, liberals, and conservatives have all wandered from the right track due to having come under one or another forms of “amnesia” (290-4) which Dyson details. (more…)

George Mitchell has finally issued his report on the use of “performance enhancing drugs” or PEDs in Major League Baseball (MLB). Predictably, this has set the nattering talking heads into a new buzz, some defending this or that of the accused, but most just tutt-tutting. It is hard to find anyone actually discussing the question, “what’s wrong with using PEDs?” So, like the Little Red Hen, but more importantly: in keeping with First Word’s mission, I will set out to do so. (more…)

There are a variety of topics in our current discourse, such as racial linguistic reference, and the question of the desirability of integration in church or state, to which our disputants often have a ready argument: “there will be no race in heaven; therefore we should operate as if that were the case now.” As will prove to be the case again and again, both the major and minor premises of modern truisms are generally dubious. Here I wish to analyze a premise that functions as the “minor” in that argument, and is taken as “obvious” even by intelligent people today. Namely, the idea that “there will be no race in heaven.” (more…)

Edgar J. Steele is a recent discovery of mine. He is a lawyer that started sharing his wisdom on investments with a small group of friends. The circle grew, and grew, and today is huge.

The topics expanded from purely investment, to broader issues of concern to our national crisis.

Now in semi-retirement, he takes up pro bono cases that no one else wants to touch. As he says, he has become “Attorney for the Damned.” In this, he has shown great courage, and is something of a modern hero. (more…)

First, let’s lay out the landscape of the phenomenology of Halloween as it is experienced in America. Then, let’s analyze its propriety. There are two axes of analysis that I will highlight. (more…)

Earlier, I broached the subject of the ethnic epithet. There are two issues that still need to be explored: (1) should some kind of distinction be made between the merely ethnic and the racial? and (2) in any case, is there something ethical that needs to be spoken to this usage?

Prior to addressing these questions, however, there is a bit more “phenomenology” that should be unpacked (more…)

Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies

One of the few benefits of living in an era of insanity is that it makes the peddlers of the most prosaic and obvious truths appear like sages. The banality I will defend here is that almost every stereotype you have ever heard is true. (more…)

In an earlier post, I pointed out that the “argument” for continued immigration implied by the slogan “we are a nation of immigrants” was an enthymeme that cannot be cashed out: every nation is, or originally was, a nation of immigrants. Thus, if any nation has the right to restrict immigration, then so does America. (more…)

Two statements are often heard, to justify ongoing massive immigration. One hears them spoken by everyone from talking heads to politicians to folks chatting at backyard barbecues. They are meant to “end the argument.” But I submit, they are not valid. (more…)

To set the stage for a fuller discussion of immigration, I want to start by asking, what is an illegal immigrant?

Ponder for a moment: at what point does immigration become illegal? Say a man is standing just south of the border, and someone tells him, “we have a law that says, only American citizens are permitted on this land.” (more…)

In reply to somebody who posed a reasonable question about 9-11 “conspiracy theories,” a blogger made the following comments.

“Not to mince words, I deem the 9-11 conspiracy theorists — both Far Left and Right — uninformed, ridiculous, dangerous, and sinful. . . But they have overstepped the bounds of reason and Scripture when they publicly declare that the Bush Administration had previous knowledge of or, worse yet, was in collusion with the 9-11 terrorists.” (more…)

A bill that makes denying or trivializing the Confederate genocide committed against Yankees at the Andersonville POW camp a criminal offense punishable by jail sentences will be introduced in Congress next week. Offenders will face up to three years in jail under the proposed legislation, which will also apply to those who incite violence against carpetbaggers, scalawags and black Republicans. (more…)

Islam is often criticized for being a religion of the sword. Though there may be a good deal of truth to this, it has in recent years become a caricature that Zionist preachers, neo-cons, Judaics, and globalists use to cajole the American goyim into thinking that Islam poses a grave threat to civilization as we know it. (more…)

This is a sort of remake of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, with the races of the young couple swapped.

However, the intervening forty years have brought massive changes to the mores of society, and this is reflected in the mores of the movie. The triumph of the sexual revolution that was just beginning there is now complete: normalized, institutionalized, expected: (more…)

There is a scene in Godfather where the chief counsel for the Don goes to meet the “Hollywood bigshot” Woltz, who has cheated godson Johnny. When Tom explains the (somewhat shady) things he could do in exchange for “one small favor,” Woltz hits the ceiling: “I don’t care how many dago guinea wop greaseball goombahs come outta the woodwork.” (more…)

In each generation, it appears that Hollywood produces one centerpiece sermon-movie to instruct the goyim on their most serious besetting sin of the time, including an “application” section on how to make progress in sanctification. This movie was the chosen vehicle for the 60s generation, presumably to make sure the free speech/sexual revolution did not stop short of full consistency. The denounced sin appears to be resistance to miscegenation. To ensure an impact, heavyweight Hollywood legends Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy were marshaled for service as the parents of the gushing bride-to-be. (more…)

We live in bizarre times. In numerous European countries it is crime to question the official version of the German Holocaust against the Jews. (more…)

In a The Boston Globe op-ed piece, an hysteric woman named Ellen Goodman makes a remarkable assertion: (more…)

Everyone talks about the weather but no one does anything about it.
– Mark Twain

Actually, Mark Twain was wrong. Witch doctors, shamans, and mystery priests have always done something about the weather. Of course, so have pious Christians on their knees in prayer. But now, for the first time in history, Al Gore is part of a movement that wants to do something about the weather by international politicking. This movie is his story. (more…)

I knew beforehand that my proposals for what our nation should do in regard to its waging an unjust war against (more…)

Cindy Sheehan appeared on Sean Hannity’s show (more…)

For a long while, the Pledge of Allegiance has struck me as being wrong on several (more…)