Moving is the gift that keeps on giving (or the ancient witch’s curse that lingers forever). Dr. Wife and I are back at it again.
The piano mover is loading up the piano and some larger furniture, and I’ve loaded tons of incidental stuff in my tiny 2017 Nissan Versa Note SV:
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Happy Trails!
—TPP
It’s been awhile since I’ve written an update on the koi pond. Dr. Wife and I got busy with moving and the like, and the extremely cold weather meant the koi were in hibernation mode until relatively recently.
With warmer weather, the koi are finally starting to come up to feed, and it’s been delightful to see them. I’m still hoping to get some Japanese Trapdoor Snails and to add some more rosy red minnows to the mix.
That said, I’ll have some more juicy koitent soon! Indeed, today I’m looking back at some classic koi-related videos:
It’s my second consecutive year teaching World History (I taught it last school year for the first time since the 2011-2012 school year—whoa!), and I’m pleased to see that I’m two weeks ahead of schedule compared to where I was last year. That’s likely due to having a bunch of my lessons done this year, so I’m not trying to pad out lectures with a bunch of riffing.
So it is that, as of the time of writing, I’ve just covered the Mongols in detail (minus a couple of slides before we talk about medieval Japan).
The Mongols are wildly fascinating, in part because they were wild—nomadic horsemen who would drink the blood of their horses when they were low on supplies; wore silk underwear that served as protection against arrows; and would switch horses mid-ride, spending as much as ten days in their saddles. Under Genghis Khan, they spilled an immense amount of blood, slaughtering an estimated 40,000,000 (that’s forty million) people, equivalent to low-end estimates of those who perished in the Second World War. Again, these are estimates—numbers from the thirteenth century aren’t necessarily reliable—but that comes to roughly 13% of the global population at the time. Indeed, while writing these numbers, they seemed fantastically large; I had to go back and consult my World History textbook (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link; I receive a portion of any purchases made through that link, at no additional cost to you).
Genghis Khan’s conquests, as well as those of his successors, brought an odd peace, the Pax Mongolica (also an Amazon Affiliate link), to Eurasia for about 100 years. It was the peace of the graveyard, as so many people were killed in the course of these invasions, there was no one troublesome enough left to cause a ruckus. It also marked one of the few times in human history that a single political unit (sort of) controlled the great Eurasian steppes, allowing for the (alleged) journeys of Marco Polo and doubtlessly thousands of other unsung but intrepid merchants, missionaries, and explorers.
Naturally, the largest land-based empire ever to exist in the world could not long survive. The Mongol Empire was probably never anything as such—a single, unified political unit—but more of an amalgamation of tribes, peoples, and regions swearing allegiance to the Great Khan. After Genghis Khan’s death, the empire was divided into four khanates, with an ostensible Great Kahn ruling over the four, but with the regions going their own ways in practice.
Nevertheless, there is something captivating about the sheer scale of these conquests, and the way a nation of clannish, nomadic horsemen swept across the world, spreading their terrible fury and bloodlust as they went (and, it seems likely, the Black Death that would depopulate 25% of Europe).
Will another horde arise from the Eurasian steppes? If so, let’s pray they fall far short of ambitious conquests of the Mongols.
With that, here is 5 March 2025’s “Midweek Mongol Madness“:
The English writer Sudo Nonym, a regular over at Free Speech Backlash, sent yours portly a treasure-trove of fiction stories for readers here to enjoy. Many of these stories have already run at FSB, but Tom, the proprietor over there, is cool about cross-posting and republishing, and I’m never one to say no to intriguing content—especially when someone else has done 90% of the work for me!
Also, he has two eBooks on Amazon (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link; I receive a portion of any purchases made through that link at no additional cost to you—TPP)!
But I digress. Today’s story is the third chapter of a longer piece, The Man from Historical Accuracy. The premise is simple: a bureaucratic agency, Historical Accuracy, tweaks history to keep things trucking along as they should.
If you’ve missed previous chapters, you can find them here:
With that, here is Sudo Nonym with Chapter 3 of The Man from Historical Accuracy:
I’m continuing to plug away at some compositions for a planned release, Koi Dance. This week I’m featuring a solemn but hopeful duet.
Just a heads-up: this review contains a lot of Amazon Affiliate links. I receive a portion of any purchases made through these links, at no additional cost to you. —TPP
Good ol’ Ponty sent over an unexpected treat: this excellent review of the early 2000s hit television series 24—at least, it’s his review of the first three seasons, along with his initial impressions of the fourth.
I remember when this show debuted. It was the perfect show for the War on Terror, back when that conflict still enjoyed some popular support among the American people. It was quintessentially Bush-era American: a brave lone warrior, coupled with a good counter-terrorism team, found the terrorists, while also resorting to (and often being the victim of) “enhanced interrogation techniques.” It was a time when we wanted terrorists, both on-screen and in real life, to get roughed up indiscriminately, “human rights” be damned!
24 delivered. I hadn’t thought of the show much since those halcyon—and, it turns out, dying—days of cable television until Ponty sent along this review. So come bask with us in those pre-Great Recession days, when it seemed like maybe we could actually install functioning, Western-style democracies in the Middle East.
With that, here is Ponty’s review of the television series 24:
Guest contributor Sudo Nonym has shared his novella The Man from Historical Accuracy with yours portly to publish for readers of this humble blog. With three chapters published here so far (and more to come), it seemed like a good time to feature them for Lazy Sunday.
If you haven’t read any of the story so far, now’s a great opportunity to catch up!
Happy Sunday!
—TPP
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The formation of England’s new Restore Party under the auspices of Rupert Lowe has electrified the Right worldwide. Naturally, the party is already polling well in England—three years away from the next expected parliamentary elections.
One Lowe’s major points is that foreign migrants who are unable to speak English—remember, this language is named for England and the English people, the descendants of the Angles—must leave England.
If it sounds extreme, it’s because we’ve been conditioned to believe that citizenship and the concept of the nation are abstract ideals with some vague, dotted-line borders attached. There’s also this belief that, if we just get people onto our magic dirt—which, despite allegedly possessing magical properties, is simultaneously not special enough to protect with hard borders—they will shed their benighted ways and become good center-Left classical liberals with six-figure salaries running socially beneficial non-profits.
Because of such magical thinking, people will either a.) learn English or b.) not learn English; either way, everything will be fine. Besides, expecting immigrants to learn the language of the native people is racist, probably. We should be using our “privilege” to learn their language.
I’m not opposed to learning foreign languages—far from it. But I’ve been thinking a great deal about language since listening to Dr. Edward Dutton—“The Jolly Heretic”—give his take on Lowe’s announcement:
Here’s a quick transcript of the key excerpt(s) from Dr. Dutton’s thoughts on speaking English:
“I find this extraordinary—the concept of not being able to speak English…. If you are remotely educated for a foreign country, then you will of course… speak English, and you will speak it well, because it is in the lingua franca.”
Indeed, English is the lingua franca—the universal, common language—of the twenty-first century. Students travel to the United States and Britain to hone their English skills; I know because I teach quite a few of them (and, I’m ashamed to admit, many of them speak and write English better than native-born Americans)! It is the language of international commerce, diplomacy, and scholarship.
It’s a beautifully adaptable language, too. It’s flexible, bendable, changeable, while still retaining an essential grammar. Of the many accomplishments of the English-speaking peoples of the world, our language—along with concepts like freedom of speech and religion—is one of our greatest gifts to humanity.
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Yours portly is pumped for Rupert Lowe, the founder of the Restore Party in England. I was listening to Sargon of Akkad (Carl Benjamin) discuss Lowe’s epic platform of national restoration while driving to see Dr. Wife, and it inspired me to belt out this hilarious campaign song:
The United States observed Presidents’ Day earlier this week, and yours portly is enjoying a decadent Winter Break for the next couple of days. Of course, the decadence will end abruptly on Saturday when Dr. Wife and I load up yet another U-Haul with the last remaining stuff from her house.
For today, though, I’m enjoying a little bit of time with the dogs while Dr. Wife slaves away at the hospital. She’s a good woman.
It seems that February is always a bit of a low-point for the blog in terms of my own preparedness and output. I’m not sure why that is. Perhaps the initial rush of the New Year has passed, with Reality settling in heavily. It certainly seems like everything has been busier lately.
Regardless, here’s to a few days off—probably the last for a good while!
With that, here is 17 February 2025’s “The Portly Politico Presidents’ Day Extravaganza“:
