In his mockingly titled autobiography and final published work, Ecce Homo (1886), Friedrich Nietzsche presented himself as the prophet of modernity. His father a Lutheran pastor, Nietzsche rejected all that he had inherited in terms of faith at age twelve and dedicated himself to destroying the morality and ethics of Judaism and Christianity. As any Catholic knows, especially during the Lenten season, “Ecce homo” comes from Pontius Pilate’s presentation of a brutalized, bloody, and tortured Jesus to the bloodthirsty crowds of Jerusalem. “Behold the man,” Pilate stated.

No one should underestimate Nietzsche’s own vision of himself with the title. Intellectually brutalized, bloodied, and tortured, the nineteenth-century philosopher presented himself—in his final and last words to a world he wanted to overthrow. Behold the man. To be more accurate, behold the demon. To be sure, the man could write, the man could think, and the man could tell a great story. But, he was also descending into madness, and it is difficult—even for those who love Nietzsche—to know if one should take him seriously or not in the autobiography. His hubris is so over the top at times, that even his greatest supporters cringe when trying to give this book context.
— Read on theimaginativeconservative.org/2019/03/behold-demon-friedrich-nietzsche-destroyer-bradley-birzer.html

The outrage is always fake, always selectively applied, and always intended to destroy. It is never sincere. Apologizing only makes it worse, which is why it was heartening to hear Carlson insist he would never “express the usual ritual contrition” (an excellent choice of words).
— Read on mailchi.mp/tomwoods/tucker-carlson

I’m not a Carlson fan. Indeed, I think he comes across as an ass, but Tom is dead right about the sudden outrage.

There are a few reasons why ebook sales have been declining over the past four years. They doubled in price, when publishers gained control over pricing, instead of Amazon or Kobo charging their own. You cannot loan an ebook to a friend and cannot resell an ebook, once you have finished it. Lots of people have embraced Overdrive, and are borrowing ebooks from the public library. In 2018 65 different library systems each loaned out more than one million ebooks in the space of a year; one system, Harris County Public Library in Texas, loaned out more than two million ebooks.
— Read on goodereader.com/blog/e-book-news/our-love-affair-with-ebooks-is-over

Dozens of people — including college coaches and Hollywood actresses — indicted.
— Read on www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2019/03/12/dozens-indicted-alleged-massive-case-admissions-fraud

Standardized testing is nothing but conformist tripe. Always has been, always will be.

First, let’s reflect on the nature of conservatism. Its master theoretician remains Russell Kirk, the founder of post-war American conservatism. I am fond of this Kirk quote: “The attitude we call conservatism is sustained by a body of sentiments, rather than by a system of ideological dogmata. It is almost true that a conservative may be defined as a person who thinks himself such. The conservative movement or body of opinion can accommodate a considerable diversity of views on a good many subjects, there being no Test Act or Thirty-Nine Articles of the conservative creed.”

Thus conservatism is really a habit of mind or orientation of sentiment. It is a way of thinking about man, society, and the relationship between the two. It has much more to say about how we treat these topics than what we say about them. It would be wrong to conclude that any position can be conservative so long as it is theorized in the “right” way. But it nonetheless remains true that conservatism is primarily a modifier, an adjective. This is why the phrase “conservative liberal” need not be a contradiction in terms. In fact, many of the greatest thinkers in the conservative tradition—Acton, Tocqueville, even Burke himself—are best classified under this label.
— Read on www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/why-true-conservatism-means-anarchy/

Lewis was, as Dr. Como so correctly notes, always his own man, and his own forceful actions toward colleagues, friends, family, and students—tended to attract or repulse those around him, with little middle ground for neutrals. Those who loved him, loved him dearly. Those who despised, despised him just as dearly. Dr. Como brilliant explains Lewis’s playful and deep love of myth, his extraordinary charity (quite similar to that of Russell Kirk), his normalization of the genre of science fiction, his rather complex and sometimes downright bizarre relations with women, and his vast reading of every possible book. The latter, especially, matters to Lewis’s own writings, as many of his articles and books are really gothic autobiographical reflections of his readings (again, quite similar to that of Russell Kirk).
— Read on theimaginativeconservative.org/2019/03/james-como-introduction-cs-lewis-bradley-birzer.html

To the myth: man escapes the devil, does good, and gets the girl. God bless you, Jack Kirby.

John Zmirak
So the Democrats couldn’t bring themselves to pass a resolution denouncing anti-Semitism. Until, that is, they’d diluted the resolution by including almost every other kind of prejudice, including the made-up, politicized crime of “Islamophobia.” It had just a few exceptions. White people, males, and Christians are not included among the groups that Congress forbids you to hate.

That exclusion is telling. It tells you that the ideology reigning today has no interest in fairness. Or even in fighting hate. It wants to direct that hate toward acceptable targets. Toward “out-groups” that once were “in-groups,” which are now legitimate scapegoats. This is precisely the worldview which philosopher Rene Girard described as Victimism. He also said that it was the ideology of Antichrist.
— Read on stream.org/why-did-obama-import-a-somali-congressional-district-for-ilhan-omar-to-represent/

A fascinating article.

Warner Bros. has big plans for Batman’s 80th anniversary – Superhero News
— Read on superheronews.com/warner-bros-has-big-plans-for-batmans-80th-anniversary/

Many on the left believe that as a woman of color, a Muslim, and an immigrant, Omar cannot, by definition, be a purveyor of hate and prejudice. One way that identity politics manifests is that those who are considered oppressed receive immunity to do things that those considered more privileged cannot do. Hence many Democrats, particularly members of the Congressional Black Caucus, sought to defend Omar rather than to disavow her.
— Read on www.nationalreview.com/2019/03/democratic-surrender-on-anti-semitism/

How blind does one have to be? Racism is racism is racism.