By Their Past Ye Shall Know Them
Guilt by Association?
Thomas S. Stephens. There was this post from three years ago. This one caused a big argument between husband and wife here. When this surfaced yesterday, I told my wife I wanted to write about my close friendship with a great-grandson of the Confederacy’s most potent and influential intellectual, still being quoted today. She acted like I needed to move to the next couch. How we’ve all been taught. If you read the linked Cornerstone Speech, you’ll find yourself set back on your heels somewhat. Why libs and sincere Christians don’t ever read it, and why nobody anywhere wants to talk about the Vice President of the Confederacy who made Jefferson Davis look like a bad hair ad even back then. Stephens was a great thinker and fearless advocate. The Tom Stephens I knew was a guy hiding his light under a bushel, though everyone could see he was whip-smart, well read, witty, and a determined fan of both baseball and drag racing. He didn’t want to talk about his great granddad, but he was an outspoken advocate for racial equality. Didn’t need to make his life about it though. He wanted, he ultimately got, a funny car of his own, a degree from Georgetown, and whatever career he wanted from the stock exchange. Anyone got a problem with that? What do I remember? His GTO. The best, most beautiful blue dream I have seen of the species. And, yeah, I disagree with Alexander Stephens too.
Charles C. W. Cooke. Another post from three years ago. This one really cheeses me off. Gives intellectuals a bad name. And gays too, for that matter. So Charles C.W. got his degree from Oxford, pissed off his mentor at the London Times or Bootles, and came to America to save ourselves from ourselves with his great syntax. Couple points. These Oxford Brits are genuinely intimidating to a lot of people in an age when you can’t make fun of their flouncing Anthony Blanche body language. They swan in acting like they own all of high class culture, the Enlightenment generally, and the high moral ground. But look at them. Truth is, I have written more than anyone about the indispensable role ‘mind space’ plays in determining intelligence. When it comes to world sense, the Brits have absolutely nothing to offer America. Their mind-space is determined by the area of England in square miles, which is just a little over one percent of the area of the United States. They don’t have enough room in their heads to hold America, even if they weren’t lugging around all the algorithms for Oxford commas and stutters. CCWC is a mental midget with a big vocabulary. Oxford isn’t Harvard. And the Brit colonial guilt has no more to do with morality than Brit table manners have to do with failing to distinguish between men and silver spooned pigs. (If you need that last part translated, call National Review and ask for the tart by the loo. CCWC will probably pick up on the first ring.)
Thomas S. Stephens. There was this post from three years ago. This one caused a big argument between husband and wife here. When this surfaced yesterday, I told my wife I wanted to write about my close friendship with a great-grandson of the Confederacy’s most potent and influential intellectual, still being quoted today. She acted like I needed to move to the next couch. How we’ve all been taught. If you read the linked Cornerstone Speech, you’ll find yourself set back on your heels somewhat. Why libs and sincere Christians don’t ever read it, and why nobody anywhere wants to talk about the Vice President of the Confederacy who made Jefferson Davis look like a bad hair ad even back then. Stephens was a great thinker and fearless advocate. The Tom Stephens I knew was a guy hiding his light under a bushel, though everyone could see he was whip-smart, well read, witty, and a determined fan of both baseball and drag racing. He didn’t want to talk about his great granddad, but he was an outspoken advocate for racial equality. Didn’t need to make his life about it though. He wanted, he ultimately got, a funny car of his own, a degree from Georgetown, and whatever career he wanted from the stock exchange. Anyone got a problem with that? What do I remember? His GTO. The best, most beautiful blue dream I have seen of the species. And, yeah, I disagree with Alexander Stephens too.
Charles C. W. Cooke. Another post from three years ago. This one really cheeses me off. Gives intellectuals a bad name. And gays too, for that matter. So Charles C.W. got his degree from Oxford, pissed off his mentor at the London Times or Bootles, and came to America to save ourselves from ourselves with his great syntax. Couple points. These Oxford Brits are genuinely intimidating to a lot of people in an age when you can’t make fun of their flouncing Anthony Blanche body language. They swan in acting like they own all of high class culture, the Enlightenment generally, and the high moral ground. But look at them. Truth is, I have written more than anyone about the indispensable role ‘mind space’ plays in determining intelligence. When it comes to world sense, the Brits have absolutely nothing to offer America. Their mind-space is determined by the area of England in square miles, which is just a little over one percent of the area of the United States. They don’t have enough room in their heads to hold America, even if they weren’t lugging around all the algorithms for Oxford commas and stutters. CCWC is a mental midget with a big vocabulary. Oxford isn’t Harvard. And the Brit colonial guilt has no more to do with morality than Brit table manners have to do with failing to distinguish between men and silver spooned pigs. (If you need that last part translated, call National Review and ask for the tart by the loo. CCWC will probably pick up on the first ring.)
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