1,620 words
J. K. Rowling, the beloved author of the Harry Potter series of young adult novels, has come under considerable social scorn for her anti-trans stance. She’s had to return awards, has caused firestorms on Twitter, has been threatened by trans women, and has even been cancelled by the Harry Potter franchise that she created. (more…)
9,202 words
There is an elective affinity — a relationship of reciprocal attraction and mutual reinforcement — between a) John Locke’s argument that a child’s mind initially resembles an “empty cabinet” or a “white paper void of all characters” which can be shaped by controlling the education impressed upon the child’s mind, and b) the origins of a literature specifically written for children in the 1700s in England. (more…)
It’s doubtful any of these young men will be going on dates with girls after the game.
2,008 words
In a most unlikely development, the legendary sport of quidditch caused a minor ripple in the press a couple weeks ago. I’m not making this up; it’s has been covered by Deadline, NPC News, and several other media outlets. Maybe it was a slow news day, even with the world coming apart? In any event, there’s a deeper lesson to this that perhaps the reporters themselves didn’t discern, a sober reminder that ingratitude is an ugly thing indeed. (more…)
Roy James Holden, a former cable guy who pleaded guilty to murdering one of his elderly white customers. His employer claims they had no idea Holden could be a criminal, despite lying on his application and being caught photographing his customers’ personal documents prior to the murder.
2,279 words
Merriam-Webster defines a recession as “a period of reduced economic activity.”
In December 2000, lame-duck President Bill Clinton said, “A recession is two quarters in a row of negative growth.”
On Thursday, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis revealed that the nation’s GDP fell 0.9% in the second quarter after falling 1.6% in the first quarter.
So two subsequent economic quarterly contractions, coupled with the highest inflation in 40 years, means we’re in a recession, right? (more…)
British MP Jeremy Hunt, whose surname is as perfect an example of Cockney rhyming slang as you could find.
2,490 words
A bad month for the Iron Lady and the suffragette
There is never a good time to be a statue in England. You are out in all weathers, for a start, and on the rare days the Sun does shine pigeons seize the opportunity to take a dump on your head. But you do usually get to hang around on your pedestal or plinth for a few decades, or even centuries, before you are abused by humans. That, like much in the old country, is changing, and 2020 shall henceforth be known as the year of the great toppling. But the last month has seen attacks on statues of two famous English women, proving equality is alive and well. (more…)
2,166 words
This is the first installment of Mark Gullick’s monthly roundup of the news from the United Kingdom, which we plan to publish during the last week of each month henceforth.
Sometimes I look at the old country and wonder how we ever got an empire organized without tripping over our own shoelaces. (more…)
J. K. Rowling, who earned praise for getting herself cancelled this year by refusing to back down from her normal views on genitalia and gender.
2,411 words
We can be heroes just for one day. — David Bowie
Hans, are we the baddies? — Mitchell and Webb sketch featuring Nazi soldiers
As European and Commonwealth countries act like faithful servants to the autocratic global coup currently taking place, my own home country of England has fallen into step like a good foot-soldier. The government, nominally Conservative but actually a sort of Green Socialist elite oligarchy, has gone full Bezmenov, contradicting itself on a daily basis about COVID and preventing its people from seeing dying loved ones while it parties maskless indoors. (more…)
Arthur Rackham, Alberich and the Rhine Maidens, 1910-1911
1,323 words
Children yet, the tale to hear,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Lovingly shall nestle near.
In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die:
Ever drifting down the stream —
Lingering in the golden gleam —
Life, what is it but a dream?
— Lewis Carroll, Alice Through the Looking Glass (more…)
Joseph Wright of Derby, A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery, circa 1766
1,166 words
I believe that optimism is a sucker’s game. Motivation is for losers. If you cannot find motivation within yourself no amount of cheerleading will make you succeed. Optimism is the enemy of reality, and reality is the only path to truth. Likewise, the dire pessimism expressed by so many on the Dissident Right is a constraint on the perception of reality. (more…)
1,290 words
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is the latest installment in the ever-expanding Wizarding World franchise and the second film of the Fantastic Beasts series. Much like Peter Jackson’s bloated Hobbit trilogy, the Fantastic Beasts franchise is an unapologetic cash grab and will sprawl across five films, approaching the length of the original Harry Potter series.
1,172 words
With her Harry Potter series of books and later movies, British author J. K. Rowling has obviously struck a chord in the psyche of white audiences. Despite her work being throughly saturated with social justice messaging, the fundamental premises of the story are an expression of more traditional, “elitist,” and even “racist” attitudes which white populations continue to hold on some level. (more…)