In The Shadow Of Mt Hollywood

Yesterday I posted about a long-ago ex who could be so badly triggered that she would foam at the mouth, and this somehow reminded me of Edward Feser, the detached neo-Thomist academic philosopher who rages against the chuds. Then it occurred to me that there were two notionally big news events over Easter weekend, one a "historic" return to the moon by the Artemis II mission, the other the effort to rescue the downed weapons system officer who'd had to eject from his F-15 over Iran. The Artemis II mission, with its one-from-column-A-one-from-column-B crew struggling with two versions of Outlook and a stinking multimillion-dollar toilet, was paralyzingly anodyne. The story of how the WSO was recovered, details of which are still coming out, is what gripped the country. Nevertheless, So while a wounded American Colonel was hiding in a mountain crevice at 7,000 feet in Iran with nothing but a pistol and a prayer, and the CIA was running a fake rescue convoy to confuse ...

Meanwhile, Conservatism, Inc. and the chud brigade on Twitter would confidently assure us that nuking another country does not technically count as “war” and that the Constitution is perfectly OK with dropping as many nukes as Trump wants as long as it's within a 60 day window. https://t.co/GGNSSgnnUZ — Edward Feser (@FeserEdward) March 30, 2026 I haven't checked in with Edward Feser for several weeks, but others have pointed to his posts on X here and there. The big thing that strikes me lately is his use of the term "chud", as we see above. I asked the AI oracle, "can you give an estimate of how many times Edward Feser has used the word 'chud' on X?" Remarkably, it answered, It is highly unlikely that Edward Feser has ever used the term "chud" on X (formerly Twitter). A search of his public posts and interactions reveals no instances of him using the word. The term "chud" is a modern internet slang insult typicall...

Yesterday , A second Republican senator spoke out in defense of Nato on Thursday, joining Mitch McConnell and the Democrats, after Donald Trump said that he was “absolutely” considering withdrawing from the alliance after it refused to take part in the joint assault with Israel against Iran. “Nato stood by America when we were under attack and came to our aid after the September 11th attacks. Their soldiers fought and died alongside our troops in Afghanistan,” said Thom Tillis, a Republican, and Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, who co-chair the Senate Nato observer group. McConnell and Tillis are both lame ducks who seem to be opposed to anything Trump has ever proposed, but by gum, The Wall Street Journal has their backs : Could the Iran war do what even Vladimir Putin couldn’t and blow up the North Atlantic Treaty alliance? That’s no longer an idle question as most of Europe refuses to help the U.S., and President Trump responds by threatening to leave NATO. This wo...

Just like that, Real Clear Politics ran comments on the Iran war today from both Roger Kimball and Victor Davis Hanson. As I've been saying, RCP reliably runs them as the conservative conventional wisdom, but they seldom add much insight to any issue, and sometimes they just get things wrong. Hanson's point today is that the non-US NATO nations haven't been playing fair: When NATO members in the past have operated unilaterally to defend their own national interests, they have often called on the U.S., as NATO’s strongest member, for overt help. For nearly 40 years, the U.S. had offered logistical, intelligence, reconnaissance, refueling, and diplomatic support to the French in their unilateral and postcolonial efforts to protect Chad from Libya and, later, Islamists. During the 1982 Falklands War, a solitary Britain faced enormous logistical challenges in steaming halfway around the world to eject Argentina from its windswept and sparse islands. ...

Channel 14 says it obtained an exchange among Iranian leaders: President Pezeshkian: “I want to be involved in the negotiations with the U.S. Without a quick deal, our entire economy will collapse in 3 weeks.” IRGC chief Vahidi: “That’s exactly why you can’t be involved. You’ll… pic.twitter.com/EV76ZmFa2w — Open Source Intel (@Osint613) March 30, 2026 As we wait for President Trump's address on Iran this evening, I continue to reflect on the X post above from several days ago. A big theme in the comment thread is that it's no surprise that the Revolutionary Guard is in control. On the other hand, no date is given for the reported exchange between President Pezeshkian and Revolutionary Guard Chief Vahidi, but at least one report claims that Vahidi has been eliminated: 🚨🇮🇷BREAKING: General Ahmad Vahidi who was appointed as commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on March 1, 2026, reporadaly has been ELIMINATED in U. S. & Israel strikes. pic.t...

Pope Leo Explains God Does Not Listen To People Who Wage War So Long As You Don’t Count Moses, David, Joshua, Elijah, Saul, Gideon, Samson, Or Anyone Else In Bible https://t.co/8Hu7kJv7hc pic.twitter.com/q2jBwHjSST — The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) March 29, 2026 I double checked this with AI, which replied, Yes, Pope Leo XIV stated that God "does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war" during his Palm Sunday homily on March 29, 2026. Speaking to tens of thousands in St. Peter's Square, the Pope condemned the ongoing conflict between the U.S., Israel, and Iran as "atrocious" and warned against using faith to justify violence. . . . He cited Isaiah 1:15 to emphasize his point: "Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood". But then I asked AI about Moses and the battle with the Amalekites: According to Exodus 17:8-16, the Battle of Rephidim saw Joshua lead the Israelites ag...

Another area of the UK's decline that I've begun to look at is immigration. This so-called "bitesize" piece from the BBC probably puts the best possible take on it: After World War Two, a mass immigration of people coming to work in Britain began. Many of the early arrivals were from the West Indies, South Asia and Cyprus. The most famous arrival was of people from the Caribbean, mainly Jamaica and Trinidad, on the ship Empire Windrush in 1948. This is sometimes mistakenly referred to as the first arrival of black people in Britain. - UK had a severe labour shortage after World War Two, especially in the transport network and the newly created National Health Service - large areas of the main cities had been destroyed by aerial bombing and a programme of rebuilding began, needing workers - for the above reasons, British governments actively invited people from the Commonwealth to come and work - the economy of the Caribbean islands,...