Thanks, Celia. A great story and song for a beautiful area of the country. From the old DuPont powder mills at Hagley to the Brandywine battlefield and any number of old stone houses, the place is awash in history.
One thing: ". . . he joined his countrymen and ranged like Ajax on the field."
Ajax was my favorite ancient Greek guy. But would any kid know him now?
Stronger than dirt, yes indeed. That huge white horse in the commercial was stabled at Clove Lakes, on Staten Island. I rode him on a class trip there. Thanks for the reminder!
But there was Bullfinch before Hamilton, and it could be that people who knew their Bible stories also had a good smattering of ancient Greek and Roman tales and myths, including the Iliad. Americans were pretty literate in the 1800s, and libraries were springing up everywhere.
Once upon a time, people really liked to know things -- look at all those scientific lectures in town halls packed to the gills everywhere.
DuPont = Delaware and the Brandywine Valley. My daughter had spine surgery @ A.I. DuPont Hospital for Children to straighten her scoliosis. Two titanium rods, 21 screws and a clasp. That is an amazing hospital doing incredible things for children.
Brian I’m glad to hear the DuPonts did some good things for your daughter as my opinion of them is pretty low between their role in making cannabis illegal to the great grandson I went to Law School with who used to putt in the law library while the rest of us peasants were trying to study.
Yea, well. Alfred DuPont actually toiled in the factory while his offspring were trust fund babies. Alfred funded projects to help society while some of his offspring are spoil little brats. The DuPont brand in the Philadelphia business community is very strong. Can you fill me in on their efforts to make cannibus illegal please, I’d like to know this. TIA.
Besides creating over the centuries a good number of the things that make modern life possible, the du Ponts (DuPonts?) of old were nothing but hard workers, a couple getting blown up at Hagley because they actually worked at the powder mill they owned, others majoring in engineering and horticulture and getting things done in those areas, one serving in the navy throughout the 1800s, and maybe the earliest one -- I love this, and I have a small book about it somewhere in the house but find no evidence on the internet -- created an oak tree farm in New Jersey, I think near the George Washington Bridge, and exported oak trees to France. (Why France needed more, I don't remember.)
Henry Francis du Pont created Winterthur with all its American antiques, collected and often literally rescued, and the University of Delaware program in the conserving and restoration of art work. That's pretty nifty.
I like the du Ponts because they left their mansions and gardens to us. It's a slog to get there, but we make the trip a good 4-5 times a year.
I read somewhere that the company slogan, 'Better Things for Better Living Through Chemistry,' was a response to the 'merchants of death' tag from World War i.
A perfect ballad for Independence week and poignant reminder of the sacrifice of so many unsung heroes. The illegal fireworks have started here and all I can do is endure and be very grateful they are not real bombs! I am feeling particlarly alarmed by the Islamist threat on multiple levels right now. Of course in this blue wokey area, most seem oblivious and it's impossible to talk about it with hardly anyone. Even many of the local conservatives I know seem to be on the Tucker/Owens track with this. I just cannot understand how they do not get it. So grateful for all you folks here who do understand the real and present danger to democracy we are facing from the rise of Islamism.
Josh Slocum on Disaffected presents some awfully compelling evidence that Mamdani is a trained figurehead; he showed footage of Mamdani leading Free Palestine chants. Frankly no one running for public office should participate in these things!
Thanks, I'll check it out. Looks like it's not just Dearborn being taken over here in the US. Some Muslims are now bragging that by 2060 the entire west will be taken over. It seems unfathomable, but there are indications everywhere now. I just listened to Aayan's guest lecture at Austin Uni from a couple of months ago on anti-semitism and the rise of Islamism. She was superb as always and I was impressed by the student questions and her informative responses.
In Hell maybe? Nah, not quite that bad, although it can sure feel that way sometimes! I'm in the north Puget sound area of WA state in a place everyone in the world seems to want to move to--with their barking dogs and fireworks ( and drug) addictions. I'm in the low income part of the county squished in with all the other poor people who cannot afford the astronomical price of housing elsewhere. We live in a sort of 're-purposed' resort area in the woods that has a relatively densely packed population but which is unincorporated. Used to have an HOA with some protections, but voted to disband the association decades ago when crooks took over and bankrupted us. We are sort of the unwanted stepchild of the county and they don't want to deal with us. In many ways it is like Indian reservations I have lived on, except without the good stuff on the rez, just the bad. Lots of substance and other types of abuse and of course ---uncared for barking dogs and illegal fireworks. Although I am told that even in the nearby towns which do have some enforcement and forbid private fireworks-- There are still an awful lot of illegal boomers going off. We have two nearby reservations that sell the illegal stuff which of course makes it all ever so much more fun!
I can't help but feel that some people just take up space in this world. I know I'm supposed to care about how and why they became so despicably dysfunctional, but I actually don't. Lots of people had sad childhoods and manage fine.
They don't set fires in order to shoot the firemen who arrive to put them out, they don't sweep pharmacy items into large bags to sell on the street, and deck the poor store clerks on the way out, and they don't set off fireworks explosions at 3 AM just to screw with hardworking neighbors' sleep.
We didn’t used to accept people doing these things. We recognized that society had to have a shared set of rules in order to operate. People who showed that they were incapable of ‘playing well with others’ were jailed or even executed.
The Left has consistently worked to tear down those rules. To make ANY anti-social behavior allowable. But also to make any ideology that resisted the destruction of rules UNACCEPTABLE.
After the Sixties generation turned rebellion into a trendy lingua, our society almost seems to venerate anti-social behavior. “The same ideas that opened society/doomed their goals to failure” PoetKen “Wishes for the Sixties”
There's a racial component. We have to accept certain "rambunctious" behaviors or otherwise be labeled "racist."
I was "racist" yesterday for simmering in the steam room at the Y, where the tacit rule is to be quiet -- of course conversations sometimes happen in there that can be nice to engage in -- but it was just me and a certain rambunctious type listening to music turned up all the way, blaring out of her headphones to the point where I couldn't even calculate the allotments of my next paycheck.
I went off in a huff to the sauna, where a rambunctious type was giving herself an audible massage. A Venus of Willendorf grunting and groaning in a most unpleasant and suggestive way, while I'm trying to lie quietly planning my budget.
I had to get the hell out of there, so I could sit in my study being entertained by the crassest lyrics roaring past in souped-up vehicles with pricey invasive stereo systems that the "poor" somehow manage to afford.
I have a black friend living in East New York; she pays market rent, then the Section 8's moved in. Her neighbor was blasting music so loud, M went over to ask her to please turn it down.
The neighbor reported M to the doorman for acting "racist." True story. These people believe that they are entitled to bother everyone with their unnecessary noise.
I can't help thinking this kind of thing is what drove the early humans out of Africa thousands of years ago.
From what I've seen, most recent African immigrants want nothing to do with American blacks.
If you look at the trajectory of American black society before the "Great Society," it was heading in a positive direction. The Democrats' program of eliminating the influence of fathers from impoverished black homes reversed that trend with terrifying speed. Then came rap music, which embraced killing cops and violence against women--corrupting the minds of generations of fatherless boys--but criticism of it was not allowed, because that would be 'racist.'
"I can't help thinking this kind of thing ['bothering everyone with their unnecessary noise'] is what drove the early humans out of Africa thousands of years ago."
Great guffaws over here!
Note: I see the author of "Patience Gromes" is white. Hmmm. And that he wrote a travelogue about Syria, "the first in 100 years."
True. Albert Payton Terhune's "Syria From the Saddle" was written in the 1890s.
I'm sure you know that the same sort of deprived teenagers who have lately been trashing New Jersey's amusement and other public parks and beaches, and organized a violent fracas attended by hundreds at Coney Island last week, were responsible for the shooting around the corner from Stonewall last night.
At first one naturally thought, Someone who doesn't like gay people. Or someone who doesn't like nocturnal noise. Oh dear, oh dear.
My compassion button for these folks wore out a very long time ago. I don't hate them and I do have some pity for them, but mostly I just want them gone----Mars might just be far enough away.........
It may come to that, but hard to leave as hubby was born, raised and lived all his life here. Also I am intensely bonded to this PNW landscape. Even though watching it be basically destroyed is heartbreaking, the thought of leaving is even more distressing.
Thank you for this comment. Sometimes I challenge myself: am I being too much of an alarmist, am I falling for the propaganda ? The reading I’ve done (7th Century Arab Conquest, 12th Century Ottoman Conquest, Douglas Murray’s book: The Strange Death of Europe, the threats to a Israel, and what I see in the news about Canada and the US). It’s too much to ignore and we just have to hope it reverses. I’m glad for JIP so I can confirm that there are others out there who see these things as I do.
I am reading a book about Joseph McCarthy and the threat of Communism in the 1930’s and 40’s. The set up is eerily similar to today with Islam expansion. People in the government that should not be there, the State Department infested with them, front groups such as CAIR and others. All too similar for me. Seems like a play book they are running copying the Russians from early in the 19th century, but more sophisticated.
I find it hugely ironic that McCarthy has been proven right--we *were* being invaded by communist thinking. Unfortunately, the witch hunt that he lead to try to put a stop to it was an evil all its own. Even more unfortunately, it created a backlash that allowed the Marxists to thrive.
That’s what I’m reading in the book. Fascinating. He was proven right. I’m not sure I agree the “witch hunt” was so evil, I need to learn more. And yes, I agree that the media infested waters and Marxists had their field day trashing McCarthy. It lives on today in their comments about it.
Do you know how the US was able to purge the various communist factions from within ? Was it simply a matter of waiting for the USSR to fall in 1991 that caused this all to go away ?
I’m curious because of the similarity with today’s Islam is scary. And I like the tactics of the government is using to combat this. In your face, hunt them down. The guy that shouted “Death to the IDF” in England at a rock concert over the weekend will get his visa revoked and is not allowed into the US for his tour. Good stuff.
I've been thinking about why they call Trump a 'fascist.' It's the nationalism. I find this intriguing, because those who believe Trump's America First agenda is nationalist and therefore fascist, missed the identity fascism we've been assaulted by for the past ten years or more.
I prefer national fascism to identity fascism.
I understand that the anti-nationalism "fascism" is borne of WWII; it's a reaction to Nazi Germany. If propagandized against national interests in favor of a global one, as the idea goes, we can eradicate nationalist fascism.
How ironic, that identity has merely exploded in response, into a much more present and dangerous form of fascism.
See Mamdani raising taxes on purportedly white neighborhoods (well part of me gets the giggles over that, because the worst progressive assholes live in those neighborhoods).
The idea that nationalism is inherently fascist is absurd. Nationalism--pride in one's country--was the norm for all nations in the past.
I think you've hit on something important here, calling this new version 'identity fascism.' I've been asserting for some time now that fascism only requires a centralizing idea for the populace to rally around. It need not be nationalism; that was only used (and abused) by fascists in the 20th century because it was a convenient centralizing idea that most people already accepted.
I've imbibed much on the subject of how we were propagandized into believing that nationalism = fascism. If I'm not mistaken, this is the telos of the Soros Foundation. Flooding countries with immigrants dilutes the national pride, the feeling of unity. We become "global citizens" instead.
I believe that the people who call nationalism fascism are confused by the facts. Because Germany was hobbled economically by the sanctions put in place in the Treaty of Versailles after WWI, Germany declined precipitously. The rise of Hitler was to counter that via pride of nation. By that lunatic took such pride and quickly landed as a fascist, invading countries and killing many. The US can hardly be argued as anything close to what Hitler did. In fact, pride of the US can have a positive impact on the global community via less conflicts and more economic prosperity, which with path Trump is pursuing. Those on the left are fools.
Interesting you bring up the communism subversion tactics from the past. Aayan also referenced this in her lecture I linked to. I think technology has made the whole process more sophisticated and effective. I too was feeling a bit over alarmist, until I listened to Aayan last nite. She gave alot of truly startling real time statistics that only affirmed everything I was already seeing and feeling. Also there are just so many really good investigative journalists saying the exact same thing now that she has been saying for decades- I don't think it's an overreaction at all. If anything I believe in general we have reacted too little too late. In the video NotesUnder The Dog just linked---London is Over, they said that over 100,000 ILLEGAL immigrants have entered Britian just since 2018. Most of them muslim and many radical islamists. That may seem a relatively small number to us, but for them it is huge and a greater number than folks on the British Army! Somewhere it was stated that over 100,000 jews have left England since Oct 7. I think I got that right anyways. So not alarmist to be seriously concerned imo.
Forgot to add that at the beginning of her lecture Aayan shared an experience she had in Britian recently at the hair salon. Her hairdresser, a white male, started telling her how the greedy jews were taking over the world! I mean if just an average joe hairdresser in Britian feels he can casually make statements like that to random customers---we are in serious doodoo.
This reminds me of a "friend" on FB from my (mostly white) hometown railing about the deportation of 500K Haitians as being emblematic of Trump's "racism."
I tried to get him to put himself in the small town place of Springfield, Ohio, where these TEMPORARY Haitian immigrants were insinuated. Try to imagine the chaos that wrought. Without a vote from the locals.
And that's the part they don't get when they wail "racist." No one voted to have their small town inundated with these people.
This isn't the 19th or early 20th century, people! Frankly, I'm coming around to putting a moratorium on immigration, even in the US. The world is an entirely different place today. If these people are so hard-working and useful -- they can make their own countries "great" again.
Instead, they're voting to turn ours into the same socialist pit of corrupted hell that they fled. Enough is enough.
I’ve seen a lot of people pointing out the Left’s hypocrisy on Haiti. Leftists who were, not long ago, claiming that Haiti was a great country are now screaming that sending immigrants back to Haiti is tantamount to sending them to their deaths. Well, which is it—great country or hellhole? They can’t have it both ways.
That's what hubby used to say, until the illegal stuff got louder and louder and scarier and scarier and much more numerous over the years. Now he can't tolerate it either. Literally it is like a war zone here for about two weeks. The street is completely covered in fireworks trash and it's a frickin miracle they haven't managed to burn down the entire neighborhood yet. I start praying non stop for rain from the middle of June onwards. We might have gotten just enough blessed rain to offset the current heat wave and keep everything from burning up this week.
We used to go to Coney Island for the fireworks on Friday nights -- at one time a joy for me, because I remember being on Dad's shoulders and squealing about the "young, new stars" (because they weren't white like my grandfathers' hair and mustaches) when he'd take me in the 1950s -- until George Floyd and those months of BLM terrorist assaults made me hate them.
We tried again a couple of years ago at Coney Island, but the display had lost its allure; and besides, the blast of boomboxes and the stench of weed drove us away.
Thanks for sharing the good memories. I too remember a time when fireworks were an innocent joy and wonder to be shared. Now I completely dread them. Too bad, so sad. I detest the smell of weed and it's everywhere around here. I understand for serious pain relief it is very effective but I have had bad reactions to it in the past, so will probably never be able to take advantage which might be a good thing. I do use high grade THC free CDB oil and I don't even like the smell of that, but it does help with chronic pain relief. One of the biggest complaints about the criminal owned industrial marijuana farm that moved in here a few years ago was the all pervasive odor that stretches for a mile in all directions. Yuck.
Very grateful for those who have fought for this country. I’m also grateful for Celia and her efforts on this column. I am being exposed to music and poetry that I’ve never heard or read before. Thanks to the commenters also. Always enjoyable.
This ballad ought to run parallel to the grooming gangs scandal in Britain. The fathers of those abused girls would have every right to slay the barbarians who took their daughters.
This does strike me as something highly unlikely in a patriarchal system. It’s a great source of fascination that a female dominated society is a masochistic society with a death wish.
I think that's what Under Dog meant. British society has become so dominated by the whole package of feminist thinking that normal reaction of a father in a patriarchal society--to beat the hell out of any man who would treat his daughter like that--is now considered unacceptable for native (white) British men.
Ok. I’m not following either of you. A while back when Rotherham was in the news when this first came to light, white fathers of the white raped girls would go to the police and complain and insist they do something. And they were told to sit down and shut up and I think even some were arrested on some trumped up charge. How that’s “unlikely” is bizarre because IT DID HAPPEN. And maybe it wouldn’t happen now although that seems outré as well, but at the time IT DID HAPPEN.
The problem is that they were told to sit down and shut up. British society has gone so far off the rails that the ‘normal’ reaction of the fathers was considered unacceptable.
Honestly - if the first Dad whose daughter was raped had shot the rapist and then taken out a few of the feckless, useless, treason cops, the rapes would have stopped right quick. You simply do not play by the Marquis of Queensbury rules with savages and fools.
"The New Christy Minstrels" is quite the throwback for me. The album cover was a quilt of Americana. I didn't own that album, but my older siblings did, and I remember their music and that album cover. Dave Smith's version (new to me) was excellent as well. I enjoyed revisiting this ballard. Thanks Celia. Great stuff for the upcoming 4th of July! 🇺🇸
Thanks Celia. I loved all the comments today so far and am so grateful you all are aware of and "get" what is happening in this country, especially with the Islam 'immigrants" and the violent and criminal ones who are loose on us all.
I live about an hour from Brandywine, it’s a beautiful area just south of Philadelphia, just north of Delaware. I’ve been there hiking and exploring a few times. Longwood Gardens is there, which is a beautiful landscape of gardens and exhibitions of conservatories, etc……. Thanks for this Celia.
Don’t know how much of the blacksmith’s tale is true and how much is myth, but many myths have at least a component of truth, and the myths we like are the ones we accept as true.
It’s not hard to imagine a man overhearing a plot against General Washington and relaying the information, coming home to find his family slaughtered in retaliation, and in his grief taking a hammer to British soldiers while being gravely wounded. Then he’s helped up into a tree and able to shoot more of the enemy before dying. It’s the stuff of legend and of the folk-singing tradition. Raises my patriotic spirits as we approach Independence Day.
I’ll be watching how Mandami, the left’s new darling, celebrates on the 4th. Will he pretend to like this country, or will he mark the day by railing against all the bad things he sees and intends to rectify?
Reminds me of two quotations that touch on this exactly. The first is from Hogfather by Terry Pratchett—a conversation between Death (the all-caps) and his granddaughter:
HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.
"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"
YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.
"So we can believe the big ones?"
YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.
"They're not the same at all!"
YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.
"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"
The second quotation is from Secondhand Lions (a really wonderful movie):
“Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that power and money, money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; and I want you to remember this, that love... true love never dies. You remember that, boy. You remember that. Doesn't matter if it's true or not. You see, a man should believe in those things, because those are the things worth believing in.”
You have an amazing and voluminous grasp of American and British pre 20th Century folk. The lyrics here echo another folk standard, John Henry, with his hammer in hand but with the sad twist from war and familial loss. The only Revolutionary War ballad I can think of off the top of my head is Yankee Doodle. Monday is my favorite day of your blog, mainly because I sometimes wonder if I wasted my life on poetry and music so it’s nice to know others share that passion.
I recall Nikita Khrushchev, back in the early 60's saying that "they" would "take over USA without firing a shot." I saw as time went by that he was doing it through the Universities. After the shock of Kent State shootings and the continued Anti establishment protesting, the way our country handled MLK's rise in popularity, RFk, JFK, & then MLK assassinations, it looked too much like a 3rd world regime change. Though I do have to say at the time it was just so tragic, I think we in the country sort of went numb, and carried on with our lives and put it behind us. Not many understood what was going on. But by 9/11 and then Obama, it was starting to line up. Who ever "they" were using (the elite in this world, some call the cabal) they were not afraid to show themselves, by that time. Obviously they had gained a strong foothold. Then covid came around and their solution for the cure??? Lots of people began to wake up. Though they have constantly used trump as the smoke screen to divide the country, by Nov. 24 enough people were awake. Now we will have to see how many in this country know what freedom is and what are they willing to do to keep it. Do we passionately love this country? And are there enough of us who still have the Patriotic spirit of the Revolutionary period and all the other battles that the generations before us fought and won. We still have the strongest military in the world. So our people are willing to fight and stand strong. I loved the song. Thank you. Try not to get too much of the news, it's "yellow journalism" anyway. Trust in our leaders, and in God. That is where my hope is placed. And Pray that our country will continue to stand against tyranny, real tyranny not the left's propagandized version. Have a great day and 4th. Were gonna win!
It was amazing how poor a general Washington was at the start of the conflict. Almost losing the entire army in Brooklyn and just escaping to Manhattan by divine providence. Then bungling a few more such as Brandywine but also showing strokes of genius such as the surprise at Trenton. Perhaps his greatest genius was simply keeping the army intact, until England tired of its war. The capture of Cornwallis, with the help of the French fleet and troops, sealed the deal. And, of course, his role in the peace and birth of our nation were models of human behavior. Earning even the praise of his former enemy, King George III>.
“her sister had experienced a “life of trauma and abuse, and now this – it has fried her brain””. Well either that or all the chemicals she pumped into her lips to make them inflatable. Or her cheat. Put it this way, she can’t drown.
Thanks, Celia. A great story and song for a beautiful area of the country. From the old DuPont powder mills at Hagley to the Brandywine battlefield and any number of old stone houses, the place is awash in history.
One thing: ". . . he joined his countrymen and ranged like Ajax on the field."
Ajax was my favorite ancient Greek guy. But would any kid know him now?
It is impossible for me to ever forget Ajax, especially since I used a heck of alot of the cleaner by that name in my Cinderallalalla years..........
Stronger than dirt, yes indeed. That huge white horse in the commercial was stabled at Clove Lakes, on Staten Island. I rode him on a class trip there. Thanks for the reminder!
Kool!
RMW that allusion did stand out as it’s so unusual in a folk song, which don’t generally traffic in Edith Hamilton’s Mythology.
But there was Bullfinch before Hamilton, and it could be that people who knew their Bible stories also had a good smattering of ancient Greek and Roman tales and myths, including the Iliad. Americans were pretty literate in the 1800s, and libraries were springing up everywhere.
Once upon a time, people really liked to know things -- look at all those scientific lectures in town halls packed to the gills everywhere.
And they wanted more than sound bites too!
DuPont = Delaware and the Brandywine Valley. My daughter had spine surgery @ A.I. DuPont Hospital for Children to straighten her scoliosis. Two titanium rods, 21 screws and a clasp. That is an amazing hospital doing incredible things for children.
Brian I’m glad to hear the DuPonts did some good things for your daughter as my opinion of them is pretty low between their role in making cannabis illegal to the great grandson I went to Law School with who used to putt in the law library while the rest of us peasants were trying to study.
Yea, well. Alfred DuPont actually toiled in the factory while his offspring were trust fund babies. Alfred funded projects to help society while some of his offspring are spoil little brats. The DuPont brand in the Philadelphia business community is very strong. Can you fill me in on their efforts to make cannibus illegal please, I’d like to know this. TIA.
Besides creating over the centuries a good number of the things that make modern life possible, the du Ponts (DuPonts?) of old were nothing but hard workers, a couple getting blown up at Hagley because they actually worked at the powder mill they owned, others majoring in engineering and horticulture and getting things done in those areas, one serving in the navy throughout the 1800s, and maybe the earliest one -- I love this, and I have a small book about it somewhere in the house but find no evidence on the internet -- created an oak tree farm in New Jersey, I think near the George Washington Bridge, and exported oak trees to France. (Why France needed more, I don't remember.)
Henry Francis du Pont created Winterthur with all its American antiques, collected and often literally rescued, and the University of Delaware program in the conserving and restoration of art work. That's pretty nifty.
I like the du Ponts because they left their mansions and gardens to us. It's a slog to get there, but we make the trip a good 4-5 times a year.
I read somewhere that the company slogan, 'Better Things for Better Living Through Chemistry,' was a response to the 'merchants of death' tag from World War i.
Chemicals can kill too.
A perfect ballad for Independence week and poignant reminder of the sacrifice of so many unsung heroes. The illegal fireworks have started here and all I can do is endure and be very grateful they are not real bombs! I am feeling particlarly alarmed by the Islamist threat on multiple levels right now. Of course in this blue wokey area, most seem oblivious and it's impossible to talk about it with hardly anyone. Even many of the local conservatives I know seem to be on the Tucker/Owens track with this. I just cannot understand how they do not get it. So grateful for all you folks here who do understand the real and present danger to democracy we are facing from the rise of Islamism.
Have you seen / read "London Is Over" with Matt Godwin? He also interviewed with Peter Boghossian. https://open.substack.com/pub/boghossian/p/immigration-islam-and-the-battle?r=eo3qf&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Josh Slocum on Disaffected presents some awfully compelling evidence that Mamdani is a trained figurehead; he showed footage of Mamdani leading Free Palestine chants. Frankly no one running for public office should participate in these things!
Thanks, I'll check it out. Looks like it's not just Dearborn being taken over here in the US. Some Muslims are now bragging that by 2060 the entire west will be taken over. It seems unfathomable, but there are indications everywhere now. I just listened to Aayan's guest lecture at Austin Uni from a couple of months ago on anti-semitism and the rise of Islamism. She was superb as always and I was impressed by the student questions and her informative responses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T3vyvs2rXA&t=903s
Evict them before it's too late. The West desperately needs a new Hammer.
Interesting commonsensical article, and I enjoyed reading your comments.
If I had a nickel for every woman crossing Coney Island Avenue in totally full burka. . . .
Ditto on the article and comments. I didn't realize you had so many burka wearers around there.
I saw Kristin Welker interview Mamdani, he’s a slickster fraud.
Yeah, see DISAFFECTED from Sunday, June 29th. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzkJN76g6ug
Fireworks, barking dogs… whereabouts are you?
In Hell maybe? Nah, not quite that bad, although it can sure feel that way sometimes! I'm in the north Puget sound area of WA state in a place everyone in the world seems to want to move to--with their barking dogs and fireworks ( and drug) addictions. I'm in the low income part of the county squished in with all the other poor people who cannot afford the astronomical price of housing elsewhere. We live in a sort of 're-purposed' resort area in the woods that has a relatively densely packed population but which is unincorporated. Used to have an HOA with some protections, but voted to disband the association decades ago when crooks took over and bankrupted us. We are sort of the unwanted stepchild of the county and they don't want to deal with us. In many ways it is like Indian reservations I have lived on, except without the good stuff on the rez, just the bad. Lots of substance and other types of abuse and of course ---uncared for barking dogs and illegal fireworks. Although I am told that even in the nearby towns which do have some enforcement and forbid private fireworks-- There are still an awful lot of illegal boomers going off. We have two nearby reservations that sell the illegal stuff which of course makes it all ever so much more fun!
I can't help but feel that some people just take up space in this world. I know I'm supposed to care about how and why they became so despicably dysfunctional, but I actually don't. Lots of people had sad childhoods and manage fine.
They don't set fires in order to shoot the firemen who arrive to put them out, they don't sweep pharmacy items into large bags to sell on the street, and deck the poor store clerks on the way out, and they don't set off fireworks explosions at 3 AM just to screw with hardworking neighbors' sleep.
We didn’t used to accept people doing these things. We recognized that society had to have a shared set of rules in order to operate. People who showed that they were incapable of ‘playing well with others’ were jailed or even executed.
The Left has consistently worked to tear down those rules. To make ANY anti-social behavior allowable. But also to make any ideology that resisted the destruction of rules UNACCEPTABLE.
After the Sixties generation turned rebellion into a trendy lingua, our society almost seems to venerate anti-social behavior. “The same ideas that opened society/doomed their goals to failure” PoetKen “Wishes for the Sixties”
Pithy wisdom that.
There's a racial component. We have to accept certain "rambunctious" behaviors or otherwise be labeled "racist."
I was "racist" yesterday for simmering in the steam room at the Y, where the tacit rule is to be quiet -- of course conversations sometimes happen in there that can be nice to engage in -- but it was just me and a certain rambunctious type listening to music turned up all the way, blaring out of her headphones to the point where I couldn't even calculate the allotments of my next paycheck.
I went off in a huff to the sauna, where a rambunctious type was giving herself an audible massage. A Venus of Willendorf grunting and groaning in a most unpleasant and suggestive way, while I'm trying to lie quietly planning my budget.
I had to get the hell out of there, so I could sit in my study being entertained by the crassest lyrics roaring past in souped-up vehicles with pricey invasive stereo systems that the "poor" somehow manage to afford.
I have a black friend living in East New York; she pays market rent, then the Section 8's moved in. Her neighbor was blasting music so loud, M went over to ask her to please turn it down.
The neighbor reported M to the doorman for acting "racist." True story. These people believe that they are entitled to bother everyone with their unnecessary noise.
I can't help thinking this kind of thing is what drove the early humans out of Africa thousands of years ago.
From what I've seen, most recent African immigrants want nothing to do with American blacks.
If you look at the trajectory of American black society before the "Great Society," it was heading in a positive direction. The Democrats' program of eliminating the influence of fathers from impoverished black homes reversed that trend with terrifying speed. Then came rap music, which embraced killing cops and violence against women--corrupting the minds of generations of fatherless boys--but criticism of it was not allowed, because that would be 'racist.'
"I can't help thinking this kind of thing ['bothering everyone with their unnecessary noise'] is what drove the early humans out of Africa thousands of years ago."
Great guffaws over here!
Note: I see the author of "Patience Gromes" is white. Hmmm. And that he wrote a travelogue about Syria, "the first in 100 years."
True. Albert Payton Terhune's "Syria From the Saddle" was written in the 1890s.
I'm sure you know that the same sort of deprived teenagers who have lately been trashing New Jersey's amusement and other public parks and beaches, and organized a violent fracas attended by hundreds at Coney Island last week, were responsible for the shooting around the corner from Stonewall last night.
At first one naturally thought, Someone who doesn't like gay people. Or someone who doesn't like nocturnal noise. Oh dear, oh dear.
But then, it's New York City.
In fact.
That last sentence made me laugh as I could visualize the young free living stone age rockers driving out the older conservatives.......
1000% agree. Everyone has an excuse
My compassion button for these folks wore out a very long time ago. I don't hate them and I do have some pity for them, but mostly I just want them gone----Mars might just be far enough away.........
There's lots of affordable housing in my area but you'd have to move to rural WI!
It may come to that, but hard to leave as hubby was born, raised and lived all his life here. Also I am intensely bonded to this PNW landscape. Even though watching it be basically destroyed is heartbreaking, the thought of leaving is even more distressing.
The frog (that would be Us) is in the kettle but the fire is on low. So far.
And some of us are still lively enough to want to jump out, but soon.......
Thank you for this comment. Sometimes I challenge myself: am I being too much of an alarmist, am I falling for the propaganda ? The reading I’ve done (7th Century Arab Conquest, 12th Century Ottoman Conquest, Douglas Murray’s book: The Strange Death of Europe, the threats to a Israel, and what I see in the news about Canada and the US). It’s too much to ignore and we just have to hope it reverses. I’m glad for JIP so I can confirm that there are others out there who see these things as I do.
I am reading a book about Joseph McCarthy and the threat of Communism in the 1930’s and 40’s. The set up is eerily similar to today with Islam expansion. People in the government that should not be there, the State Department infested with them, front groups such as CAIR and others. All too similar for me. Seems like a play book they are running copying the Russians from early in the 19th century, but more sophisticated.
I find it hugely ironic that McCarthy has been proven right--we *were* being invaded by communist thinking. Unfortunately, the witch hunt that he lead to try to put a stop to it was an evil all its own. Even more unfortunately, it created a backlash that allowed the Marxists to thrive.
That’s what I’m reading in the book. Fascinating. He was proven right. I’m not sure I agree the “witch hunt” was so evil, I need to learn more. And yes, I agree that the media infested waters and Marxists had their field day trashing McCarthy. It lives on today in their comments about it.
Do you know how the US was able to purge the various communist factions from within ? Was it simply a matter of waiting for the USSR to fall in 1991 that caused this all to go away ?
I’m curious because of the similarity with today’s Islam is scary. And I like the tactics of the government is using to combat this. In your face, hunt them down. The guy that shouted “Death to the IDF” in England at a rock concert over the weekend will get his visa revoked and is not allowed into the US for his tour. Good stuff.
I've been thinking about why they call Trump a 'fascist.' It's the nationalism. I find this intriguing, because those who believe Trump's America First agenda is nationalist and therefore fascist, missed the identity fascism we've been assaulted by for the past ten years or more.
I prefer national fascism to identity fascism.
I understand that the anti-nationalism "fascism" is borne of WWII; it's a reaction to Nazi Germany. If propagandized against national interests in favor of a global one, as the idea goes, we can eradicate nationalist fascism.
How ironic, that identity has merely exploded in response, into a much more present and dangerous form of fascism.
See Mamdani raising taxes on purportedly white neighborhoods (well part of me gets the giggles over that, because the worst progressive assholes live in those neighborhoods).
The idea that nationalism is inherently fascist is absurd. Nationalism--pride in one's country--was the norm for all nations in the past.
I think you've hit on something important here, calling this new version 'identity fascism.' I've been asserting for some time now that fascism only requires a centralizing idea for the populace to rally around. It need not be nationalism; that was only used (and abused) by fascists in the 20th century because it was a convenient centralizing idea that most people already accepted.
I've imbibed much on the subject of how we were propagandized into believing that nationalism = fascism. If I'm not mistaken, this is the telos of the Soros Foundation. Flooding countries with immigrants dilutes the national pride, the feeling of unity. We become "global citizens" instead.
This discussion on nationalism between Jordan Peterson and Winston Marshall was fascinating: https://youtu.be/dAKXScWJOiE?si=RGw0MwxnYo2xKnlP
I believe that the people who call nationalism fascism are confused by the facts. Because Germany was hobbled economically by the sanctions put in place in the Treaty of Versailles after WWI, Germany declined precipitously. The rise of Hitler was to counter that via pride of nation. By that lunatic took such pride and quickly landed as a fascist, invading countries and killing many. The US can hardly be argued as anything close to what Hitler did. In fact, pride of the US can have a positive impact on the global community via less conflicts and more economic prosperity, which with path Trump is pursuing. Those on the left are fools.
Mandami needs to be sent back to Uganda.
"Identity Fascism" That's really good. I'm gonna borrow that one.
Interesting you bring up the communism subversion tactics from the past. Aayan also referenced this in her lecture I linked to. I think technology has made the whole process more sophisticated and effective. I too was feeling a bit over alarmist, until I listened to Aayan last nite. She gave alot of truly startling real time statistics that only affirmed everything I was already seeing and feeling. Also there are just so many really good investigative journalists saying the exact same thing now that she has been saying for decades- I don't think it's an overreaction at all. If anything I believe in general we have reacted too little too late. In the video NotesUnder The Dog just linked---London is Over, they said that over 100,000 ILLEGAL immigrants have entered Britian just since 2018. Most of them muslim and many radical islamists. That may seem a relatively small number to us, but for them it is huge and a greater number than folks on the British Army! Somewhere it was stated that over 100,000 jews have left England since Oct 7. I think I got that right anyways. So not alarmist to be seriously concerned imo.
I agree 1000%.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a national treasure.
Forgot to add that at the beginning of her lecture Aayan shared an experience she had in Britian recently at the hair salon. Her hairdresser, a white male, started telling her how the greedy jews were taking over the world! I mean if just an average joe hairdresser in Britian feels he can casually make statements like that to random customers---we are in serious doodoo.
😡
This reminds me of a "friend" on FB from my (mostly white) hometown railing about the deportation of 500K Haitians as being emblematic of Trump's "racism."
I tried to get him to put himself in the small town place of Springfield, Ohio, where these TEMPORARY Haitian immigrants were insinuated. Try to imagine the chaos that wrought. Without a vote from the locals.
And that's the part they don't get when they wail "racist." No one voted to have their small town inundated with these people.
This isn't the 19th or early 20th century, people! Frankly, I'm coming around to putting a moratorium on immigration, even in the US. The world is an entirely different place today. If these people are so hard-working and useful -- they can make their own countries "great" again.
Instead, they're voting to turn ours into the same socialist pit of corrupted hell that they fled. Enough is enough.
I’ve seen a lot of people pointing out the Left’s hypocrisy on Haiti. Leftists who were, not long ago, claiming that Haiti was a great country are now screaming that sending immigrants back to Haiti is tantamount to sending them to their deaths. Well, which is it—great country or hellhole? They can’t have it both ways.
C'mon Rainbow, fireworks are cool. The joy of every boy, no matter what vintage.
That's what hubby used to say, until the illegal stuff got louder and louder and scarier and scarier and much more numerous over the years. Now he can't tolerate it either. Literally it is like a war zone here for about two weeks. The street is completely covered in fireworks trash and it's a frickin miracle they haven't managed to burn down the entire neighborhood yet. I start praying non stop for rain from the middle of June onwards. We might have gotten just enough blessed rain to offset the current heat wave and keep everything from burning up this week.
Correct.
We used to go to Coney Island for the fireworks on Friday nights -- at one time a joy for me, because I remember being on Dad's shoulders and squealing about the "young, new stars" (because they weren't white like my grandfathers' hair and mustaches) when he'd take me in the 1950s -- until George Floyd and those months of BLM terrorist assaults made me hate them.
We tried again a couple of years ago at Coney Island, but the display had lost its allure; and besides, the blast of boomboxes and the stench of weed drove us away.
Shitty damned local talent ruining everything.
Thanks for sharing the good memories. I too remember a time when fireworks were an innocent joy and wonder to be shared. Now I completely dread them. Too bad, so sad. I detest the smell of weed and it's everywhere around here. I understand for serious pain relief it is very effective but I have had bad reactions to it in the past, so will probably never be able to take advantage which might be a good thing. I do use high grade THC free CDB oil and I don't even like the smell of that, but it does help with chronic pain relief. One of the biggest complaints about the criminal owned industrial marijuana farm that moved in here a few years ago was the all pervasive odor that stretches for a mile in all directions. Yuck.
Very grateful for those who have fought for this country. I’m also grateful for Celia and her efforts on this column. I am being exposed to music and poetry that I’ve never heard or read before. Thanks to the commenters also. Always enjoyable.
The “thoughts?” at the end was “man, you know a lot of esoteric things, Celia!”
I agree.
This ballad ought to run parallel to the grooming gangs scandal in Britain. The fathers of those abused girls would have every right to slay the barbarians who took their daughters.
Except for one thing.
The fathers are probably absent.
Sad, but true.
Not all. But those who were present and complained to the police were told to back off and shut up and maybe arrested
This does strike me as something highly unlikely in a patriarchal system. It’s a great source of fascination that a female dominated society is a masochistic society with a death wish.
I guess I don’t understand your comment. These fathers were white
I think that's what Under Dog meant. British society has become so dominated by the whole package of feminist thinking that normal reaction of a father in a patriarchal society--to beat the hell out of any man who would treat his daughter like that--is now considered unacceptable for native (white) British men.
Ok. I’m not following either of you. A while back when Rotherham was in the news when this first came to light, white fathers of the white raped girls would go to the police and complain and insist they do something. And they were told to sit down and shut up and I think even some were arrested on some trumped up charge. How that’s “unlikely” is bizarre because IT DID HAPPEN. And maybe it wouldn’t happen now although that seems outré as well, but at the time IT DID HAPPEN.
The problem is that they were told to sit down and shut up. British society has gone so far off the rails that the ‘normal’ reaction of the fathers was considered unacceptable.
Honestly - if the first Dad whose daughter was raped had shot the rapist and then taken out a few of the feckless, useless, treason cops, the rapes would have stopped right quick. You simply do not play by the Marquis of Queensbury rules with savages and fools.
"The New Christy Minstrels" is quite the throwback for me. The album cover was a quilt of Americana. I didn't own that album, but my older siblings did, and I remember their music and that album cover. Dave Smith's version (new to me) was excellent as well. I enjoyed revisiting this ballard. Thanks Celia. Great stuff for the upcoming 4th of July! 🇺🇸
Beyond words. Thank you.
Thanks Celia. I loved all the comments today so far and am so grateful you all are aware of and "get" what is happening in this country, especially with the Islam 'immigrants" and the violent and criminal ones who are loose on us all.
I live about an hour from Brandywine, it’s a beautiful area just south of Philadelphia, just north of Delaware. I’ve been there hiking and exploring a few times. Longwood Gardens is there, which is a beautiful landscape of gardens and exhibitions of conservatories, etc……. Thanks for this Celia.
I love these history lessons, Celia. Thank you.
Don’t know how much of the blacksmith’s tale is true and how much is myth, but many myths have at least a component of truth, and the myths we like are the ones we accept as true.
It’s not hard to imagine a man overhearing a plot against General Washington and relaying the information, coming home to find his family slaughtered in retaliation, and in his grief taking a hammer to British soldiers while being gravely wounded. Then he’s helped up into a tree and able to shoot more of the enemy before dying. It’s the stuff of legend and of the folk-singing tradition. Raises my patriotic spirits as we approach Independence Day.
I’ll be watching how Mandami, the left’s new darling, celebrates on the 4th. Will he pretend to like this country, or will he mark the day by railing against all the bad things he sees and intends to rectify?
Reminds me of two quotations that touch on this exactly. The first is from Hogfather by Terry Pratchett—a conversation between Death (the all-caps) and his granddaughter:
HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.
"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"
YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.
"So we can believe the big ones?"
YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.
"They're not the same at all!"
YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.
"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"
MY POINT EXACTLY.
The second quotation is from Secondhand Lions (a really wonderful movie):
“Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that power and money, money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; and I want you to remember this, that love... true love never dies. You remember that, boy. You remember that. Doesn't matter if it's true or not. You see, a man should believe in those things, because those are the things worth believing in.”
Just rewatched that last week! love that movie.
Inquiring minds want to know.
You have an amazing and voluminous grasp of American and British pre 20th Century folk. The lyrics here echo another folk standard, John Henry, with his hammer in hand but with the sad twist from war and familial loss. The only Revolutionary War ballad I can think of off the top of my head is Yankee Doodle. Monday is my favorite day of your blog, mainly because I sometimes wonder if I wasted my life on poetry and music so it’s nice to know others share that passion.
Folk music is my true musical love, and I've had the benefit of friends who have introduced me to a lot of it.
Poetry and music are not a waste!
Poetry and music are not a waste of time.
Be sure to read Childer's Coffee and Covid post this morning--for a good description of how the covid grift funnel was working across the nation.
I read Childers every day.
Brilliant.
I recall Nikita Khrushchev, back in the early 60's saying that "they" would "take over USA without firing a shot." I saw as time went by that he was doing it through the Universities. After the shock of Kent State shootings and the continued Anti establishment protesting, the way our country handled MLK's rise in popularity, RFk, JFK, & then MLK assassinations, it looked too much like a 3rd world regime change. Though I do have to say at the time it was just so tragic, I think we in the country sort of went numb, and carried on with our lives and put it behind us. Not many understood what was going on. But by 9/11 and then Obama, it was starting to line up. Who ever "they" were using (the elite in this world, some call the cabal) they were not afraid to show themselves, by that time. Obviously they had gained a strong foothold. Then covid came around and their solution for the cure??? Lots of people began to wake up. Though they have constantly used trump as the smoke screen to divide the country, by Nov. 24 enough people were awake. Now we will have to see how many in this country know what freedom is and what are they willing to do to keep it. Do we passionately love this country? And are there enough of us who still have the Patriotic spirit of the Revolutionary period and all the other battles that the generations before us fought and won. We still have the strongest military in the world. So our people are willing to fight and stand strong. I loved the song. Thank you. Try not to get too much of the news, it's "yellow journalism" anyway. Trust in our leaders, and in God. That is where my hope is placed. And Pray that our country will continue to stand against tyranny, real tyranny not the left's propagandized version. Have a great day and 4th. Were gonna win!
The subversives of the 60’s are gone, but new subversives have replaced them.
Islam. The religion of submission or tribute.
Exactly!
A tribute to our nation’s fight for Independence. Thank you, Celia.
Is this the version you're looking for, Celia? It's the first cut on this page, by Julia Ecklar:
https://archive.org/details/filk_brandywine/01+Blacksmith+Of+The+Brandywine.mp3
Yes, that's it!
I had forgotten there was a version of Buffy Sainte-Marie's "The Incest Song" on that album. I'll have to post that one sometime.
I saw that title and was naturally intrigued, but had to get on the road. I hope you do post about it.
Thanks for that, Celia.
It was amazing how poor a general Washington was at the start of the conflict. Almost losing the entire army in Brooklyn and just escaping to Manhattan by divine providence. Then bungling a few more such as Brandywine but also showing strokes of genius such as the surprise at Trenton. Perhaps his greatest genius was simply keeping the army intact, until England tired of its war. The capture of Cornwallis, with the help of the French fleet and troops, sealed the deal. And, of course, his role in the peace and birth of our nation were models of human behavior. Earning even the praise of his former enemy, King George III>.
This is too good to wait until free day.
Australian reality TV star charged with decapitating boyfriend
https://archive.ph/mfhT5
“her sister had experienced a “life of trauma and abuse, and now this – it has fried her brain””. Well either that or all the chemicals she pumped into her lips to make them inflatable. Or her cheat. Put it this way, she can’t drown.