After nearly 20 years of exile in New York City, I recently returned home to the South. I went to New York for a job and arrived full of hope, delighted at the prospect of a new life in “the greatest city in the world.” My preconceptions about the city were almost all positive, and, as I later discovered, heavily romanticized. (more…)
Tag: Jef Costello
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Patrick J. Buchanan
Nixon’s White House Wars: The Battles that Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever
New York: Crown Forum, 2017It’s déjà vu all over again, folks. The more things change, the more they stay the same. This is one of the takeaways from this fascinating political memoir by Pat Buchanan, who worked in the Nixon White House as a strategist and speechwriter after serving Candidate Nixon on the campaign trail. (more…)
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Years ago, I watched a much-acclaimed documentary about the artist R. Crumb. What I remember most about it, however, is not Crumb himself, but his older brother Charles. Like most of the rest of the family, Charles was both an artist and a madman. (more…)
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The annual American ritual. The annual American ordeal. The overcooked turkey that takes forever to come out of the oven. Those little round rolls, hard as flint. That sweet potato and marshmallow (yes, marshmallow) casserole that has no name but ought to be called “carbicide.” In fact, the whole meal is carbicide. But we want that after a while — cide in any form — because the people can be worse. Oh Death, where is thy sting? The screaming kids. The in-laws that serve as an uncomfortable reminder of how you married below (or above) your station. The cousin who insists on telling you that in his house they believe in “science” (mark my words, this is going to happen). (more…)
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When I headed to the nineteenth American Renaissance conference last weekend (held once more in the beautiful Montgomery Bell State Park in Dickson County, Tennessee), I was uncertain as to what the mood would be. I was hoping the conference would energize me — but the opposite result was also possible. (more…)
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1,472 words
Jef Costello’s Heidegger in Chicago: A Comedy of Errors is a philosopher’s novel. Luckily, being (no pun intended) a scholar on Heidegger is by no means a prerequisite but, by the same token, you certainly would never find this book in the young adult section of a Dissident Right bookstore. A truthful description of the story is most accurately summarized on the book’s back cover: “What would have happened if the notoriously obscure German philosopher Martin Heidegger had visited America . . . he would have been misunderstood.” (more…)
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I was shocked when, yesterday afternoon, a friend informed me that the Queen had died. I had only just heard a report that she was under medical supervision at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. A BBC news reader noted — twice — that she was “comfortable.” I didn’t like the sound of that, but I also didn’t expect that her death would come so soon.
I am at a loss for words. However, like most people lacking words, this has not stopped me from taking up my pen. I feel duty bound to mark this passing in some way. (more…)
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Gaddius Maximus has kindly provided us with audio recordings of 12 Counter-Currents articles from the past year that he recorded himself. The link in each article’s title will take you to its text. To listen to the audio in a player, click “download” or in the player bar beneath, or to download it, right-click the link and then click “save as.”
Beau Albrecht, “How to Quit White Nationalism” (10:18) download (more…)
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A couple of days before I was due to leave for the 2021 American Renaissance conference, I told a good friend of mine that it was not too late to change his mind and come along. He’s very much on our wavelength but is anti-social and finds our movement gatherings somewhat tiresome. “I think I know what they’re going to say,” he responded, sarcastically — implying that he’s heard it all before. (more…)
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The release of a new James Bond film is always a cause for celebration. I’ve been following Bond since I was six or seven years old, but the series is even older than I am. Isn’t it remarkable that the same family has been making these films now for sixty years? There is nothing quite like the Bond phenomenon.
The release of No Time to Die was held up for more than a year due to the Chinese coronavirus, but now it is shaping up to be by far the most successful post-pandemic cinematic release. (more…)
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3,216 words
Meghan Markle is not the first conniving, social climbing, American divorcee to imperil the British Monarchy. Before her, there was Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor. And, as problematic as she was, Wallis had a hell of a lot more going for her. Born Bessie Wallis Warfield in Baltimore in 1896, Wallis was not pretty (one biographer has even speculated that she was a hermaphrodite). (more…)
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2,637 words
The key problem of our age is disconnection from truth. This takes several distinct forms. The first, and most obvious, is the prevalence of lies. As everyone knows, modern, Western civilization is founded upon lies about human nature, culture, and history. The most significant of these — underlying, in one form of another, most of the rest — is the equality lie; the myth of human equality, which is the chief myth of our age. (“Myth,” as most of my readers know, can have a positive or a negative connotation, as there are salutary myths; here, obviously, I am using the term in its purely negative sense.) (more…)
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3,362 words
In a few days, we Americans are supposed to be “giving thanks.” This normally involves getting together with members of your extended family and feasting. Turkey. Stuffing. Biscuits. Blasphemous, unnameable casseroles that combine foods man was never meant to combine, concealed beneath dubious sauces. With the exception of families that say grace before eating, most American Thanksgiving dinners seldom involve anyone actually discussing what they have to be thankful for. Given that the year is 2020, it may be best that we continue to observe this latter custom. (more…)