3,334 words
Ron Chernow
Grant
New York: Penguin Press, 2017
Ulysses S. Grant is one of the archetypal Americans. A brilliant general who would only accept unconditional surrender. A modest president who eschewed pomp in favor of simple, democratic attire. (more…)
1,447 words
Cassie Pike and Kathy Weitz
Prey: My fight to survive the Halifax grooming gang
London: John Blake Publishing, 2019
The main perpetrator [of the Rochdale grooming gang], Shabir Ahmed, said that Western society has trained these girls for him. In his view we allow immodesty, and he balks at the freedoms we give girls. He said that’s what made the girls lesser individuals and therefore ripe for him to pluck. (more…)
British television presenter Adrian Chiles
British television presenter Adrian Chiles
1,837 words
Not too long ago I got an app for my streaming service that features British TV shows, which led to me developing an obsession with reality shows featuring poverty-stricken Englishmen and their troubles.
Naturally, I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole of voyeurism and judging. (more…)
2,283 words
Withnail & I (1987) is a masterpiece of British dark-comic satire written and directed by actor, novelist, and screenwriter Bruce Robinson, who went on to write and direct How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989), another strong film in a similar vein. His career seems to have petered out, though, after a couple of flops, Jennifer 8 (1992) and The Rum Diary (2011).
Richard E. Grant made his film debut playing Withnail. (He was also the lead in How to Get Ahead in Advertising.) Paul McGann played Marwood, the “I” in the title. (more…)
172 words / 49:44
172 words / 49:44
To listen in a player, click here. To download the mp3, right-click here and choose “save link as” or “save target as.”
Greg Johnson talks to F. Roger Devlin about Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism (Princeton University Press, 2020) by two Princeton economists: Anne Case and her husband, Nobel laureate Angus Deaton. Case and Deaton discovered the alarming rise of mortality among working and middle-class whites since 1999. (more…)
154 words / 59:44
Audio version: To listen in a player, use the one above or click here. To download the mp3, right-click here and choose “save link as” or “save target as.” To subscribe to the CC podcast RSS feed, click here.
John Morgan and Michael Polignano interview Swedish nationalist YouTube commentator and fitness guru Marcus Follin, a.k.a. The Golden One. (more…)
2,593 words
We all know the story.
Maybe we heard it in our high school history class.
Maybe we went through a libertarian phase where it was repeated ad nauseam as an argument for legalizing marijuana, cocaine, meth, and other hardcore substances—even if you dislike the substances themselves and would rather see them disappear from the face of the Earth.
Maybe we even repeated it ourselves! (more…)
2,032 words
It’s a nice day to start again
There is nothing fair in this world
There is nothing safe in this world
And there’s nothing sure in this world
And there’s nothing pure in this world
Look for something left in this world
Start again — Billy Idol, “White Wedding”
It had been quite a while since I last spent any meaningful amount of time in my hometown. (more…)
2,940 words
While Americans tend to talk up their country — “We’re Number One!” etc. — Canadians are all too willing to throw Canada under the bus and assert their personal superiority to both. “Yeah, it’s really lame around here, eh, but the neighbourhood [Canadian spelling!] where my cousin lives in T-O[ronto], it’s really happening!”
1,759 words
Christian Rätsch and Claudia Müller-Ebeling
Pagan Christmas: The Plants, Spirits, and Rituals at the Origins of Yuletide
Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions, 2003
Christmas—or Yule, to use the name originally given to this sacred time by our pre-Christian ancestors—is one of those times when I am particularly reminded of how much who we were still strongly influences who we are. (more…)
