Materialism - Crackpot Ep 33 - The For-Profit Worship of Human Beings

James and Lynn discuss the for-profit worship of human beings, Protestant vs. Catholic Christianity and its descent into libertarian materialism.  What does materialism mean?  What are the alternatives?

The Crackpot Podcast features the gnostic shaman of violence James LaFond and middle aged housewife Lynn Lockhart.

Audio:




YouTube

0:00:30  James' furnishings
0:05:00  Future podcast topics
0:06:07  Today's topic: Materialism
0:10:00  Shout to Jacob in Sweden, James admires Donald Trump and Native Americans, torture
0:15:50  A feared but admired enemy, Hernando de Soto
0:16:40  Did Evola believe that war was the ultimate transcendental act for the warrior?  Evola's types of warfare, spiritual balance vs casualty counts
0:20:30  Romans ruled the known world with 150k men
0:22:40  Examples from the ancient world, but first, a knife and rum interlude
0:24:04  Hadon of Ancient Opar
0:28:24  Gilgamesh and Enkidu, He
0:30:35  Early conceptions of afterlife
0:33:07  How does each generation discover the secrets of understanding?
0:38:16  Achilles and Agamemnon
0:40:42  Myceneaan Lion Gatway
0:43:42  Church refugee mills, birthrates and slavery, for-profit worship of human beings
0:50:20  Link Paranormies
0:51:00  Libertarianism and Protestantism
0:55:30  Do people with less connection with the physical world also have less connection with the spiritual world?  Jessica Jones review, stick training for security work
1:04:30  Politics vs. corporatism, letter from BC, Bart's amazing Taboo You Facebook Page
1:09:25  Individual actors are valuable to the collective
1:11:23  Very little bit of Trump talk, for Jacob from Sweden.  Donald Trump the outlaw president
1:13:00  Chuck and how to be against the news, E. Michael Jones, Harm City updates and closing words


Preshow notes:
I have been wanting to talk about this for a while, and your discussion with BC convinced me. This is for taping on Tuesday
What do you mean by materialism?
What is the opposite of materialism?
Did Evola believe that war (at the individual level) was the ultimate transcendental act?
How do religious rituals and sacrifices fit in with this?
What examples do we have from the ancient world that informed Evola's thesis?

How does a population which exists in a mostly abstract reality still become the most materialist in history?
How come people who have more connection to the material world have more appreciation for the transcendental or spiritual? Are these trends (less manual work and physical engagement and less spirituality) correlated or coincidental?
Do men need to achieve some mastery in the physical world to complement their intellectual development?
What about the ability to avoid fatherhood? The availability of birth control has been hell on the white birth rate much more than others in this country.
Our culture is so abstracted from the physical that people believe that chromosomes do not dictate gender, but that the whims of children can be followed to commit permanent physical and hormonal injuries to them.

remember to ask me of Hadon of Ancient Opar
Gilgamesh & Enkidu materialism facilitating escape from mortality
Achilles and Agamemnon deed over material
Stevens and the Panama Canal the children and pebbles of our will
Beowulf & Grendel, the heroic as time travel or planar interloping
Managerialism, bureaucracy

Lockhart's Top LaFonds Volume 22

Neanderbol is coming, and I will be making sure the authors don't slack.  You are in excellent company with this concept ("He might not like us.")

Violence Guy advises on the use of nunchakus.

James watches the SportsBall Channel so we don't have to.

The Ghetto Grocer explains the incentives in welfare reform.

The Violence Guy has a knack for finding interesting people, such as the hipster Batman.

They're under 18, they won't be doing any time!

Prison is a poor substitute for tribal methods of behavior management.

Boxing and self defense coaching for a young athlete.

Red pills, black pills and betrayal.

Slaves and servants in Plantation America.

I know the feeling when no one shares your nerdy obsessions.  I will be vindicated in the end, when all you knuckleheads realize how great spreadsheets are.  Seriously, cosmologists are just rebranded astrologers, hungry for attention and funds, Michelson and Morley they are not; mathematicians are adorable eccentrics that mostly keep to themselves.

Makes me wish my grandpa was still here.

Baltimore is not a good place to be an office girl, or anything else really.

An interesting wrestling question from an interesting fellow.

Slavery during the colonial period was complex, but complexity doesn't serve a political purpose.


Buy James' books through Amazon, pdf books through his main website, become a Patron, or donate straight to the man through Paypal, because you love James and his work.

(c) 2018 Lynn Lockhart

State of the Bourbon Address

By the Checkered Demon

Northeast bound and down, rising from the swamp like some Japanese sea-thang, on up through Mississippi, North Alabama and Tennessee, then finally Kentucky. An old 30 year work pal at the wheel, and me as the passenger, since he trusts no one to drive like him. He may be right, for he's one of the worst I've ever seen. One of those who never has a wreck himself, but leaves plenty in his wake as he wanders obliviously back and forth across two lanes, rumble strip to rumble strip. I peek back in my mirror now and then, expecting to see burning vehicles behind us as he tailgates, fails to signal and constantly changes speed. He drives like he just chugged a quart of 115 proof Rye, and I'm forever amazed he doesn't ever get pulled over for a breath test in the giant new Toyota Land Cruiser. Perversely, I felt rather safe.

The perfect traveler never knows their destination, and hewing to that philosophy I didn't know a thing about Knob Creek Shooting Range, neither the precise location nor hours of operation. By the time we'd winkled it out of the river bottoms, the only guy there was sweeping up brass and told us to come back at 0800 tomorrow. No big deal really, since we had come for the whiskey on our annual State of the Bourbon Address. We cruised back to town and sat down in a Mexican beanery next to a table full of Bardstown PD detectives. They were 2-3 margaritas in, and therefore safe to be near. Rolled on back to the motel later and killed the bottle of Redemption Rye we'd been nursing since New Orleans, to dream of rattle-guns and short, controlled bursts.

The next morning found us weaving back over to the range, being passed by everything from muscle cars to busted pick-ups, blowing horns and giving the "No. 1" salute, glaring through Duck Dynasty beards. "People are so fucking rude these days", said Pat.

"It's all that TV," I opined.

The range was open and we entered the gun shop, confronted by three watchful dogs, a Finnish anti-tank rifle on skis and a Gatling gun. We gave each other the Groucho eyebrows and thought yes! Counting rifles, shotguns, pistols and zombie guns, there were probably 1,000 or more firearms on display; even a nifty little flame thrower. Big Boy Heaven. Hmmm, an idea for good old Baltimore's streets.

So I found someone and asked how one goes about renting and shooting a machine gun. Two weeks, August 12, when we hold our Gun Shoot & Military Gun Show.

I said, "Pat, we ain't shootin' no machine guns today. We're two weeks early."

"Then we're not shootin' this year then, I guess."

"Don't look like it."

Pat cruised around looking at guns, since he sold land in California recently and has been spending a bit more lately on the firearms front. I saw 37 or so things I couldn't live without and passed on it all, went outside, found a spot to sit and lit up a cigar.

I sat out in my windbreaker enjoying a new one from Nicaragua, listening to a distant brrrt, brrrt, punctuated with a chug-chug-chug, brrrt, brrrt; wishing I was there watching, trying to identify the guns from long shelved memories.

My day dreams were interrupted by "that's one fine smelling cigar, young man. What is it?"

"Erm, it's a Roberto Duran. My new favorite, a Nicaraguan. About $133 at JR Cigars."

"Well, it's the best I've smelt lately for sure."

I pulled out my 2 cigar travel case, extracted the remaining one and offered it.

"No, no, that would leave you dry. Fugeddaboutit,"

"I have most of a box back in the hotel. Feel free. Be my guest."

He accepted it, slicked it down, produced a tiny penknife for the cap and fired it up with a gold gas Dunhill. He lit up (properly), took a puff or two and tasted it. Took the smoke up his nose then exhaled in a long sigh. "Perfect! Very fine. Do you know the head of tobacco production in Cuba doesn't smoke?"

He produced a case and handed me a Cuban Robusto. "This one you have is superior, I'm thinking."

We sat and smoked awhile. New sounds drifted up from the lower range: bzzzt, bzzzt. "The boys have new toys, it sounds like. Were you in the military?"

"Air Force, loadmaster, 1608th out of Charleston, MATS."

"So, what's your name?" the stranger asked; I told him.

"Well, I'm [redacted], a retired three star, USAF. Nice to meet you, Airman. That was my command."

"I'm floored, General, not to mention honored."

"Don't you dare. We were all assholes back then. We'd forgotten war and had to relearn it," the General said.

"I did my hitch and forgot about it quick as I could. Haven't thought of it much since."

"That's because you never got nailed. You can't forget shit like that so easily."

"I guess so. The worst I ever saw was mortar rounds walking across a base in my direction, but not quite getting there. Sometimes they did, but not that time. So you were a lucky duck. Been a little closer and it would have stuck hard in your brain housing group. Yup. God loves me, I suppose."

We sat awhile, smoking.

"So, are you here to shoot?" he asked.

"I heard this place gives machinegun rides, and thought me and my bud might enjoy it. Turns out we're two weeks early. Maybe next year. We do a trip to Kentucky annually to check out the new bourbons.

"Go to the store and buy a range pass. Buy two boxes of 45ACP and four boxes of 9MM. I've got three nice growlers I want to shoot before I sell them at the next show."

"Yes sir!"

I went to the clerk to buy my range pass and bullets, and Pat, waiting on a call to his FFL to transfer the pistol he'd bought. "Why the range pass?"

"I met a general, and he's taking me shooting."

"Bullshit!"

"No shit."

"I want to meet him."

"Do it."

Pat scurried out back, and we found General X loading rounds and guns into a golf cart.

"I'm the Checkered Demon's bud, and I'd like to tag along, if you wouldn't mind?"

"Did you serve in the military?"

"Yes sir."

"What branch?"

"I was in the Army."

"You Army guys are lowlifes. You go buy a range pass. You can watch, but me and the airman will be shootin'. We're leaving now. Walk on down to the lower range and bring some ear muffs."

I shot the Reising, then the two Swedish Ks. Two magazines each.

"All right, Airman. I want to shoot these Ks a bit more, see that the magazines are kosher. Say goodbye, you know. You're relieved."

"Thank you General, and joy to your life."

"Fly straight, airman. And good luck."

Pat and I walked back up to the shop. "You cocksucker!"

"No, lucky sucker."

Pat went off muttering to finalize his deal. I sat in the car, grinning like a mule eating briars. God DOES love me I thought, and sometimes he shows it. Sometimes is good enough.

CD

PS from the Real Checkered Demon:

The Checkered Demon is a notorious liar. A lot is true, indeed most, but sad to say I never fired a shot. This should be called historical fiction.

(c) 2018 The Checkered Demon

Bullying - Crackpot Podcast Ep 32

James and Lynn discuss bullying in school and other contexts.  My kids were kind of wild the day we taped this!

The Crackpot Podcast features writer and extraterrestrial anthropologist James LaFond and sleep deprived motherslave Lynn Lockhart.

Audio:




YouTube:

0:00:30  Shout to Tony Cox, happy birthday to James, greetings to Big Ron
0:02:50  Topic is bullying, Fatherland Podcast
0:03:30  Does bullying have any social purpose, the story of Peanut
0:06:42  When the target can shut down the bullying
0:09:00  Is bullying inevitable among groups of children
0:10:08  The cruelty of children
0:14:50  The predatory psychology of political correctness
0:16:20  Toughness of the Spartans
0:17:00  Imperial Japanese troops
0:17:37  How much of bullying is due to school structures?
0:19:24  British Navy
0:23:08  Social hierarchy in a large group of children compared to hunter-gather tribe or small village
0:26:40  Emma in daycare
0:27:40  What can parents do to help kids avoid being a target?
0:30:30  The importance of personal autonomy
0:33:00  Maintaining a bond with your child through work, school, video games
0:39:47  What if your child is the aggressor?
0:42:30  Young people aren't forming families
0:46:46  Other types of bullying, children and technology
0:53:15  Hierarchies vs bullying, in the martial arts studio
1:01:35  Building alliances among men of different skills, abilities, temperaments, Sunset Saga

Preshow notes:
Does bullying serve a social purpose?
How is a healthy hierarchy established among children? (I think forcing large groups of children together is unnatural. They can form groups on their own if they wish. Freedom of association!)
How do these behaviors manifest in adults?
Is it inevitable in groups of children?
Do public school conditions exacerbate bullying?
What should parents do if their child faces intimidation, threats or violence?
What if your child is the aggressor?
Is cyber bullying real?

(c) 2018 Lynn Lockhart

Lockhart's Top LaFonds Volume 21

James joined Myth of the 20th Century to discuss Fight Club, it's a good one!

James appeared with Luke Ford on a livestream, or download the mp3.

Lukas McKane brings us SCIENCE!

The joys of public schooling in Baltimore.

The graphomaniac describes his career transition.  He left out the part where I call him once a week to torture him with tech support and spreadsheet talk.

More help for the nearly blind.

Portlandia indeed.

In case you wanted to know about James' friends' love life.

It's oligarchs vs. labor.  Oligarchs have never felt racial solidarity and they won't start any time soon.

Happy birthday, Jim Bowie!

The problem with democracy is false authority, the solution - end women's suffrage!

I guess these guys never got their sushi.

An enterprising fellow tries to sell a blade and lives to ride another day.

Travel Diary:  Baltimore's Violence Guy experiences culture shock.

I understand there are places in this country where the benefits of public school still outweigh the drawbacks.  Be grateful for now, and have a plan to pull your kids out of school.

The Checkered Demon delivers truth in his charming way.

Everyone is on drugs.

Europeans and Africans have coexisted in North America for nearly 500 years.  That is long enough to form a unique social and genetic structure.  There are ants that do something like this.  Give the Central Americans and Asians time!

I do think that James underestimates the gun culture in the US but we must heed his words.

Self defense queries from young ladies are always welcome!

MMA analysis: Rockhold v. Romero.

A Man Question on tribalism and civilization from Sven in Sweden.

James watches TV so you don't have to.

It's hard out there in the crackhead economy, and for innocent teenagers looking for a ride.

Tony Cox had a lovely morning.

Buy James' books through Amazon, pdf books through his main website, become a Patron, or donate straight to the man through Paypal, because you love James and his work.

(c) 2018 Lynn Lockhart

Lapowinsa and Tishcohan

Two Delaware Chiefs with Undressed Hair Painted by Gustavus Hesselius

Lapowinsa by Gustavus Hesselius
Courtesy of the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia

Tishcohan by Gustavus Hesselius
Courtesy of the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia

Examining the paintings of the two Delaware Chieftains provided and discussed here, Lapowinsa looks part Irish and mostly Amerindian and Tishcohan looks to be all or mostly Irish. As for skin tone, these men merely have a tan, and proof that Hesselius worked as a realist can be seen by viewing his monstrous self-portrait further down the page. The fact that these chiefs have uncropped and undressed hair is strange, unless one considers that they were treaty chiefs, not war chiefs and that the hair style depicted is that of young English colonists not yet wearing a wig do to male pattern baldness, which did not much afflict natives. The shoulder-length hair tied at the nape was the English and Dutch style at this time in North America.

The dressed and cropped hair of Eastern Woodland Indians warriors served as a ready-made war trophy, marking these tribes as far more violent than the Western tribes of the long hair beyond the Mississippi.

Why did they adopt this contemporary Euro-American hairstyle?

Was it due to their participation in the peace treaty?

Had they renounced war and devoted themselves to peace?

Was it at the request of the painter or of the patron, Mister Penn?

Was it an attempt to assimilate with the German Quakers and their Gaelic slaves?

In any case, the wearing of cloth rather than skins marks these men as partially assimilated just as their pipe and pouches mark them as still holding to their ancient traditions. Tishcohan looks almost exactly like a coworker of mine from two decades ago named Jimmy Ritz, down to the tan. It is of further interest that the younger Tishcohan shows predominantly Caucasian parentage in his features while the elder chief is obviously at least half native, with darker skin, though light compared to Western Indians.

To support this project and view become a Patron of James LaFond.

(c) 2018 James LaFond

Women's Suffering and Suffrage - Crackpot Podcast Ep 31

James and Lynn discuss the condition of women through history, from stone age societies, to the ancients and to the current day, GDP uber alles.

The Crackpot Podcast features James LaFond, a legendary expert on frails, and Lynn Lockhart, reportedly a human female.

Audio:




YouTube:

0:02:40  Today's topic, the history of the feminine condition
0:04:00  White Devil, kidnapping
0:10:34  Male to female ratios
0:13:05  The woman as a beast of burden, Rwanda Rousey
0:15:00  Equality and overlapping roles removes autonomy from women; child rearing, agrigulture
0:20:40  Runaways from civilaztion
0:22:30  Magellan's crew trying to go native, native women's strategies
0:26:48  Other stone age cultures, Neanderthals
0:32:04  Bantu expansion & Capoid people
0:38:10  Women in Islamic societies, A Dread Grace
0:42:52  Nathan Bedford Forrest
0:45:15  Why are women leaders more belligerent?
0:55:51  Slavery myth, gaining favor from queens
1:00:40  Cruelty and power
1:04:36  Women and GDP
1:09:47  Washing machines
1:12:35  End women's suffrage!
1:15:40  Family as hostages and debt as bondage

(c) 2018 Lynn Lockhart

Lockhart's Top LaFonds Volume 20

Look for James to appear tomorrow at 9am Pacific with Luke Ford and Dennis Dale.

More ranking fun, History's Top Hero Kings.

In case you want to know about the Khan's love life.

Police tactics in New Orleans.

James advises the functionally blind on training techniques.

History like the story of Georgia's Revolutionary War battalions make a lot more sense when you know the suppressed context.

Evola's warrior archetype requires a man of action and of faith.

Your woman needs to train with and carry a blade.

How to walk like a suburban crime surfer.

Worthiness was once measured by deeds, now by a slave's ability to accumulate goods.

Buy James' books through Amazon, pdf books through his main website, become a Patron, or donate straight to the man through Paypal, because you love James and his work.

(c) 2018 Lynn Lockhart

‘His Own Red Fear’

Flight by Robert E. Howard, a review by James LaFond
Reading from pages 66-67 of A Word from the Outer Dark

These three savage, 16 line verses are about Cain, Adam’s son, who is fleeing the fallout from his brother-slaying crime.  Howard has an unsettling knack for infusing Biblical narrative with his passion for the poetry of vengeance, a passion that transfigures the reader and transcends mere human notions of revenge.

A jackal mocks Cain on his flight, vines trip him up on the trail, shadows haunt him close, stalked by his own footfalls, harried by the sound of his own breath, judged by mountains, indicted by valleys and worried by the bones of dead men—the killer casts the reflection of his sin wherever in the natural world he wanders. Cain, forsaken by men, meets not another soul on his lonely road. Eventually, fleeing the silence of the dead and the wrath of God, Cain comes to a lonely sea, in search of the only refuge left to him and comes face-to-face with a “monstrous thing of gloom” taken shape from the very deep, and it speaks:

The foremost killer of the earth comes not into my land!
Down all the drifting years to come your fate mankind shall tell
That ye roam the world for the rest of time, disowned by earth and Hell!

On reading this poem I am reminded of one of Howard’s earliest letters to a friend in which he wrote enthusiastically about promoting a local teacher’s discussion on Biblical matters. It has been a few years and I am forbidden from quoting these letters, but I believe—though might be mistaken, that he had also recently read Ben-Hur and an essay on that novel. Having read all of Howard’s Solomon Kane stories at least three times, as the Puritan avenger monstrously roamed the earth righting wrongs with terrible prejudice, I cannot but think that there was some link between this poem and that character in the narrative precincts of Robert E. Howard’s mind.

(c) 2018 James LaFond

Good Listens

I bet you've been wondering about the sporadic posting over at HQ. 

James has been on a secret mission inspecting ice age ready bunkers in the North East.  While there he appeared on a serious video podcast, with expensive equipment and professional microphone persons and everything, the NYC Crime Report with Pat Dixon, Ep 139.  All that nice furniture costs money, so it's behind a paywall.

I also wanted to share a few tracks from Citizens Noise Exchange, a pop-folk trio featuring a friend of the LaFondiverse but currently on hiatus.

More good stuff is on the way as James is scheduled to join Myth of the 20th Century and Luke Ford in the coming days.

(c) 2018 Lynn Lockhart

Lockhart's Top LaFonds Volume 19

Wedded bleakness.

James LaFond on E. Michael Jones.

Evola's warrior discipline is at fatal odds with materialist modernity.

Eirik Bloodaxe joins the Barbarian chorus encouraging Clued to embrace the savage life.

Uber Joe reporting from the Harm City Uber beat, toddler beatings and deep, deep burns.

Boxing analysis: George Foreman

The suburban Crime Surfer instructs you on The Scout.

Most of us are slaves.  It's good to understand this, and our options relative to the slaves who came before us.

The drug war makes good TV.

USA! USA! USA! -- I have to respond to Sam J.  Sam J., the top rank for the US is absurd, may be farcical, but it is, in fact, correct.  Cultural erasure: how about American "NGOs" working to bring abortion and gay marriage to the last vestiges of Christendom?  By the way, how do you like your tax dollars funding Planned Parenthood, to the tune of millions of dead babies, their body parts trafficked for cosmetic procedures?  How about Madeleine Albright and her half-million dead Iraqi children?  How many dead, white Americans due to the CIA running heroin from Afghanistan, and how many broken lives?

To Jeremy's point, yes, America provides the greatest material advantage, and apparent freedom from government oppression, but you don't have to scratch very far to see the illusion there, do you?  America's greatness comes from its people in spite of its government.  Other places have lower quality people and equal or worse--but less powerful--government.

These are the women you want with you at the apocalypse!

James is reading and annotating Up From Slavery for the Plantation America Project, comparing and contrasting slavery of the descendants of Europe and Africa in North America.

I can't honestly recommend this, but if you'd like to be a character in James' 2018 fiction book, go sigh up here.

Evola on suicide soldiers and the Roman devotio.


Buy James' books through Amazon, pdf books through his main website, become a Patron, or donate straight to the man through Paypal, because you love James and his work.

Masculine Authority - Crackpot Podcast 30

James and Lynn are back to discuss the desire for conformity and the need to respect masculine authority.

This was taped long before Ricky Vaughn was doxxed last week by Paul Nehlen and Chris Cantwell working with HuffPo.  Ricky operated a twitter account during the election and some claim he was more influential than ABC News.  Ricky was more effective, by himself, 140 characters at a time, than all the tiki torch parades in the world.  Be like Ricky.

The Crackpot Podcast features masculinist and writer James LaFond, and sleep deprived mother slave Lynn Lockhart.

Audio:





YouTube:

0:01:00  Black Panther complaints
0:03:10  Ben-Hur
0:07:35  Comic books
0:08:30  The need for conformity and validation
0:14:19  Jordan B. Peterson and combat sports
0:16:15  Alt-right, dissident right & Black Panther
0:18:10  Training a new fighter
0:20:50  Campus events for the alt-right
0:28:10  Establishing ad hoc authority structures
0:32:00  Management vs leadership
0:35:30  Grocer Joe
0:41:55  Richie Spencer, Paul Kersey
0:43:40  James' rule of who is trustworthy.  You don't want to miss this
0:45:40  Facebook likes & influencing people & having a selective audience
0:51:30  Social media is like dating
0:53:45  Running the gauntlet, pregnant woman captured as a slave
0:56:45  What was James' point?  Debating is toxic
0:58:30  The alternative to debates
1:03:30  The masculine way of disagreement (hint: you don't dox them), Aristotle and Socrates
1:08:55  Who cares what Jack Donovan thinks?
1:12:33  Thank you to Myth 20


Pre-show notes for posterity:
You wrote disdainfully about YouTubers complaining about the Black Panther movie and it got me thinking about the need for ideological conformity and mainstream validation observed in certain members in the dissident right.

Jordan B. Peterson, a Canadian university professor, has been gaining notoriety for saying things which are quite obvious, though they are forbidden, such as that boys and girls are different. He still draws ire because he doesn't go far enough to please the true believers, while still enjoying a high profile and earning a good living.

James, how can people deal with this desire for validation from the mainstream?

What is the masculine approach to a difference of opinion among men who are seeking truth?

Is it realistic to expect to influence others, to change their thoughts and opinions?

Is it desirable? I personally feel self doubt in this area, do I really have any business speaking publicly about anything?

To me, the central pillar of these topics is truth. If something is true, you should believe it, and you shouldn't care much whether anyone else does or doesn't. Of course, it's vexing when those in power are violently enforcing lies, but that's life as a slave.

(c) 2018 Lynn Lockhart

‘Silver Bridge in a Broken Sky’

Dreams of Nineveh by Robert E. Howard

Reading from a Word from the Outer Dark, pages 61-63

Dreams of Nineveh is my favorite Robert E. Howard poem, focusing as it does on one of my favorite ancient empires, the Assyrian, which rose twice, once from dust and once from ruin, as a hero empire, led by absolute hero kings who have much in common with Howard’s Kull and Conan, overwrought dynamos at the helms of overextended polities.

I don’t understand poetics, so in my gropings crudely quantify the verses of this panoramic poem:

Five four-line verses in the ABAB rhyming pattern comprise the opening of the poem; verse four follows:

Death fires rise in the desert sky
Where the armies of Sargon reeled;
And though her people still sell and buy,
Nineveh’s doom is still set and sealed.

Prior to this the reader is treated to the scope of civilized life, from the “Red-lipped slaves that the ancients buy,” that herald the high point of a civilization, when those people at its margins are sucked in and devoured, used, savored and discarded, to, “Hawk-eyed tribes on the desert trail,” a sign of human nature, earthly rhythm and the godly cosmos converging to bring the curtain down on another of man’s arrogant strands of hubris named civilizations, those ghastly experiments in converting humans to resources which herald man’s attempt to become God, all of which fail in cycles so timely as to suggest that our planet breathes civilizations according to some orbital design.

The sixth and seven verses are closer to epic, rising in timbre and lowering in gravity, each of seven lines, with the last four lines of the first epic verse standing out:

And starred our throne with silver nails of pride,
Our horses’ hoofs were shod with brazen fears:
We laved our hands in blood and iron tears,
And laughed to hear how shackled kings had died.

Howard builds his panorama of empire extinguished with an apex verse of eight lines, and then finished with a couplet of faded finality.

It is this reader’s sense that the deep sense of gulfs in time, space, consciousness and malevolence which shadow, shroud and veil his many weirdly heroic tales in a sense of the ironic iconic, bluing his protagonists with the chaff of shattered civilizations serving as the yarn-spinners brazier, has managed to impart a greater mythic sense to otherwise myopic tales of gritty daring with a higher purpose, unspoken, but uncluttered, there for the seeking.

(c) 2018 James LaFond

Lockhart's Top LaFonds Volume 18

The first three Rocky films as an Hellenic Epic.

Canine problems in Europe and traditional solutions, from Teutonic Fist.  Big Ron is trying to tell me that ancient man didn't lure proto-Fido with kibble, come on!  The Woodsman has hunted many a wild canine.  Dog news round-up from Bentham.  That closes out Dog Week for now, what animal shall we do next?

Take real estate advice from the Baltimore perambulator and crime surfer.

The Alien Anthropologist is still at it, observing the courting habits of suburban Yute and tampering with evidence.

Baltimore City and County crime report.  The rampant murder of unidentifiable aliens has abated under the new commissioner.

Instructions on the use of asps in corporate security.

Baltimore lost one of the good ones.  Everyone will die, but not everyone will be eulogized by James LaFond.

James explores the topic of regression to the mean.

Learning about the warrior spirit with Evola (and podcasts to come).

It's not quite hate mail, but it's not a love letter either, and it's all we got.

Long live ancient boxing!

An interesting comparison of Aztec and English slave laws.

Women in MMA, a sign of the times.

There are a lot of things wrong in this story, but only one can be fixed:  Daughter needs to be out of college.  Community college courses are acceptable if they impart skills, accounting, sewing, lab work, whatever.  She needs to find a line of work that agrees with her and advance her skills in that area.  The rest is paying people to harm your mind and waste your time.  Stop it now.

I feel the same way about Disneyland as Tony's kids do.

Yes, there is a reverse Reformation under way. 


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