The Passing Seasons of Life

26 May 202124 May 2021 The Portly Politico8 Comments

My pastor delivered an interesting sermon this past Sunday (23 May 2021) entitled “Recognizing the Passing Seasons of Life.” The sermon pulled from the famous passage from Ecclesiastes 3, explaining that “To everything there is a season” and there is “a time for every purpose under heaven.”

I’ve always loved Ecclesiastes and its central insight that without God, everything is meaningless. The perpetual turning of the seasons—the cycle of birth, preparation, harvest, and death—is similarly meaningless—an endless cycle—without God.

Pastor Monday took a slightly different approach, one that is still very important: we so often abuse, misuse, or waste the time we have. The season of preparation—planning ahead, planting our seeds, tending to them, etc.—is frequently squandered; as a result, the harvest is lacking. We all want the harvest without the preparation, but a harvest that lacks preparation is no harvest at all—or a harvest of dust.

TBT: The Creation of Culture

8 April 20215 April 2021 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

The theme of this Spring Break Week is short stories, but more deeply it’s that of culture generally. Indeed, The Portly Politico has dedicated itself increasingly towards cultural, filmic, musical, and literary matters far more over the past few months than ever before, for a reason: creating culture is far more powerful and interesting than largely meaningless squabbles over minute points of policy. That’s not to say that politics aren’t important—at the local level it’s very important—but there’s not much we can do in a practical sense to sway the indifferent national government at this point.

Culture, on the other hand, is something we can proactively create and promulgate. A major push on the traditional Right as of late has been to do just that: create a compelling (counter?)culture to the prevailing popular culture of nihilism and materialism. Rachel Fulton Brown’s Centrism Games: A Modern Dunciad, the product of her excellent Telegram chatroom Dragon Common Room, is one exquisite effort at creating (and reviving) a rich literary culture on the Right. The collaborative nature of the work—RFB is the editor, with sections of the epic poem composed by different members of the chat—further highlights the proactive act of creation among like-minded individuals, each mixing their unique voices into a scathingly satirical blend.

My own book, The One-Minute Mysteries of Inspector Gerard: The Ultimate Flatfoot, is my own meager contribution to this new culture—a work so honestly reflective of my teenaged self, I didn’t even fix some of my collegiate typos! It’s a bit postmodern and absurdist, but it at least gives a glimpse into the gradual transformation of one young creator (in this case, me!).

My music, too, is a humble contribution to cultural creation. I’ve always thought of The Four Unicorns of the Apocalypse, in particular, as an eschatological statement of sorts. At the very least, it attempts, musically, to reflect a civilization‘s fall into decadence and nihilism, before the cycle repeats.

But I digress. For this week’s edition of TBT, I thought I’d do something I’ve never done before: bring a post from my SubscribeStar page out from behind the paywall.

The occasion for writing this post—“The Creation of Culture“—was the release of my friend Jeremy Miles‘s collection of poetry, A Year of Thursday Nights. Jeremy is no Right-wing traditionalist, but his collection is the result of a year of attending open mic nights and performing his (very entertaining) poems. In essence, he created culture out of a vibrant community of artists and musicians, both chronicling and enhancing the performances that took place at a local coffee shop’s open mic night over the course of 2019.

But I’ve gone long enough in this rambling preamble (a “preramble?”). Here is 25 January 2020’s “The Creation of Culture” (on SubscribeStar):

Interview with photog

16 March 202116 March 2021 The Portly Politico4 Comments

Longtime readers know that photog of Orion’s Cold Fire is a blogger buddy of mine. He recently proposed we “interview” one another via e-mail—a project we both hope more folks will engage in soon. We asked each other five questions and responded. You’ll be able to read my responses at his blog this morning, too.

Here are photog’s responses to my questions, reproduced without editing, other than for style and for adding links to the books he referenced:

Lazy Sunday C: Valentine’s Day

14 February 202112 February 2021 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

It’s Valentine’s Day—and the one-hundredth installment of Lazy Sunday! Because I did the “Best of Lazy Sunday” prematurely due to The Great Misnumbering, I decided to take a look back at Valentine’s Day posts.

Unfortunately, I only have two posts for Valentine’s Day, which I don’t celebrate with the same gusto as Halloween or Christmas. So I’m also going to toss in a sales pitch for one of my albums, which you’re welcome to ignore.

“TBT: Family Matters Follow-Up Part I: Divorce and Marriage; Sex Education” (original post) – A post about divorce is probably not the best Valentine’s Day fodder, but surely we can all appreciate the cheekiness of this selection. It was part of my Family Matters series (not the 90s sitcom, but my posts about social conservatism and the traditional family), which includes the “TBT: Family Matters”, this post, and a second follow-up about welfare and the family. The series of posts originates from the TPP 2.0 Era on Blogspot, and generated a ton of discussion on Facebook (back when I was brave enough to post these links directly to my personal Facebook page, and not just to the selective audience that follows The Portly Politico page there. There was so much discussion, I wrote this post to elaborate on some of my positions.
“Phone it in Friday VI: Valentine’s Day” – When I wrote this post on Valentine’s Day 2020, it felt like a different world. It was in The Before Times, in The Long, Long Ago, before The Age of The Virus. I was single, which I always find to be a bit of a blessing on Valentine’s Day, as it releases me from the oft-unreasonable demands and expectations the holiday places upon men. I linked to several great pieces and one podcast about love, marriage, and all that mushy stuff, and I think those pieces still hold up, especially photog’s piece on matchmakers. Read the comments!
Electrock Retrospective, Volume II: Technological Romance ($2.14) – As promised, this one is an attempt to sell my music—or at least get you to listen to it! Way back in college I started producing some of my MIDI compositions into albums, Electrock Music and Electrock II: Space Rock. I then released my personal favorite, Electrock EP: The Four Unicorns of the Apocalypse, in 2012, naïvely believing it would somehow rocket me towards musical and financial success (ah, to be young again). In an effort to generate more tracks (and to preview tracks from the never-completed Electrock III, which would have been my two-disc magnum opus), I came created the Electrock Retrospectives series, which itself petered out at this second volume, Technological Romance. It contains one track, “Pwrblld (Ballad II)” from the unfinished EIII record, and four other tunes. I’m selling it for a mere $2.14 this weekend—but can we really put a price on love? Since we probably can’t, you’re welcome to pay more—a true act of love.

That’s it for this very special Valentine’s Day edition of Lazy Sunday. Snuggle your sweetie today—even if she is a robot.

Love,

TPP

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Fleeing to (and Preserving) Freedom

3 February 20212 February 2021 The Portly Politico4 Comments

Monday’s edition of Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day on Ballotpedia listed the sixteen States that lost population in 2020. That’s significant as it will likely affect the apportionment of congressional districts in a number of States, depending on how rapidly other States’ populations grew relative to these States’ shrinkage.

Seven of the States were in New England of the Mid-Atlantic: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The other nine were California, Michigan, Ohio, Alaska, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, and West Virginia.

While I certainly don’t like seeing Southern States in that list (I’ll consider West Virginia “honorarily Southern”), their inclusion makes sense. Mississippi is a great State, as I imagine West Virginia is, too, but they’re not exactly hotbeds of opportunity. Similarly, Louisiana is so corrupt, it’s little wonder that it’s shedding inhabitants.

The rest of these States make perfect sense: New England and the Mid-Atlantic are hotbeds of failed progressive policies and social justice insanity. Reading photog’s posts at Orion’s Cold Fire gives a good sense for the besieged nature of conservatives in his State, Massachusetts. I once spoke with a pharmacist who relocated his family from either Connecticut or Vermont—I can’t quite remember now—who said he had to move South because he was run out of his job for not supporting abortion.

Lazy Sunday XC: Questions, Part IV

6 December 20209 January 2021 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

After last week’s celebration of 100 weeks of posts, I’m continuing my review of posts that pose questions in their titles. Also, today’s post marks the 800th post on the blog, which is pretty nifty. Regardless, I’ll likely depart from these posts to do some Christmas Lazy Sundays as the holiday approaches, but for now, let’s dive back into some questions:

“The Collapse of the Obama Coalition?” – This post considered the future of the so-called “Obama Coalition,” a coalition of various fringe identity groups to deliver electoral victory to the Democrats. The occasion for the piece was Kamala Harris dropping out of the Democratic primaries. Turns out I wasn’t as wrong about her future success as I thought at the time—she’s very likely going to become president thanks to Biden’s advanced age and blatant election fraud. But it’s still an open question whether or not identity politics will succeed long-term.
“SubscribeStar Saturday: What is Political Moderation?” – In this essay, I explore the question “what exactly is political moderation” and a sub-question: does political moderation truly exist? My basic argument is that when we call for “political moderation,” we’re really just surrendering slowly to the side that wants more via compromise—in this case, Republicans compromising with Democrats until progressivism reigns supreme.
“The Revival of Traditionalism?” – This post looked at the possible impact of The Age of The Virus on a revival of more traditional modes of living. Perhaps my assessment of that impact was overly optimistic, as it seems The Virus has merely encouraged us to depend even more on mind-numbing entertainment and social isolation. But it was nice to see feminists complaining about having to spend more time with their kids.

That’s it for this week. Here’s hoping you found some answers.

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

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TBT: Support Milo

3 December 20202 December 2020 The Portly PoliticoLeave a comment

On Tuesday I wrote a “Giving Tuesday” post to give some shout-outs to conservative and dissident content creators and organizations that could use your support. In my haste, I neglected to include a man who could always use another leopard-spotted ivory back-scratcher: Milo.

As a mea culpa to His Majesty, I’m dedicating this week’s TBT to a post in which I urged readers to “Support Milo.” I think it speaks for itself, so without further ado, here’s “Support Milo“:

I hold a soft spot in my heart for conservative gadfly and Internet provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos. I recall fondly his heyday in 2015-2016, when he championed free speech in the Babylon of Progressivism, Berkeley, California. I still wish President Trump would appoint him White House Press Secretary—it would be must-see TV every day.

Behind the flamboyant, cartoonish homosexuality and the over-the-top trollery, though, is a talented journalist and writer; indeed, Milo’s work is some of the best long-form journalism I’ve ever read. His writing, like his public speaking, is engaging and well-researched: he really checks his facts and his sources, while still delivering that withering Coulterian death strike upon his unfortunate target.

Unfortunately, even fewer Americans will have the opportunity to read his work, as he’s apparently sold his website, Dangerous.com.

I understand that for many conservatives Milo can be a bit much. I love his public speaking, but you have to realize that the first twenty or thirty minutes are going to be Milo playing his best and favorite character—himself. Once he’s paraded around in drag and told some incredibly off-color jokes, he’ll get down to the raw facts—where he truly shines.

In the years I’ve followed Milo’s work, I would wager that 90% of his factually-supportable positions are inside the conservative mainstream. Yes, he’s made some wacky statements before, but these are generally hyperbole in service to the overall experience: he draws crowds in with shock value, but wins them with knowledge.

But Conservatism, Inc., couldn’t have an effective proselytizer cutting into their racket. The David Frenchian pseudo-Right—the controlled opposition of neocons who don’t want to ruffle feathers lest their Leftist masters call them “racists” or “bigots”—cut Milo off at the knees.

For years I read National Review, and always heard conservatives pining for a cool, gay and/or minority Republican (because the establishment Right is desperate to prove to progressives that they aren’t racists or homophobes). Along came Milo—fun, smart, and into biracial man-love—and the decorum caucus suddenly realized that a cool, gay Republican was, by definition, going to be pretty melodramatic.

Where the Right Goes From Here

2 December 20202 December 2020 The Portly Politico7 Comments

Lest I be cast as a “doomer”—one who has given up on President Trump’s noble attempt to win the re-election that is rightfully is—it seems likely that our ruling elites will assure Biden wins the presidency. I still believe that Trump is the rightful victor; that the election was stolen from him; and that the evidence of widespread voter fraud is compelling enough to throw, at the very least, the election to the House of Representatives.

Remember, we live in a world that still argues that John F. Kennedy’s campaign did not manipulate vote totals in Cook County, Illinois to flip the State away from Nixon in 1960, thereby assuring Kennedy’s victory. What we saw in 2020 was the Cook County strategy writ large. We should fight that manipulation to ensure the integrity of future elections, but I fear the damage is done.

Again, I hold out hope that Trump will be vindicated and that justice will be served. Nevertheless, as conservatives, we should adopt the distinctly conservative course of preparing for what comes next. Even if our dream scenario comes to fruition, it only buys conservatives time. Either way, we’ve got to consider seriously where we’re going, and our place in a society that increasingly rejects us and our interests.

Red-Pilled Bible Study

17 November 202017 November 2020 The Portly Politico11 Comments

Last night I attended a men’s monthly Bible study at a church in Lamar. My neighbors had been inviting me for a couple of months, but when that mythical third Monday would roll around, I’d always have some outstanding obligation (mainly rehearsal for the Spooktacular). Since I’m running for Town Council again in January, I figured it would be good to feed my soul and my political ambitions simultaneously (they also brought sub sandwiches, so I was pretty well-fed holistically by the time I left).

The evening was spiritually, culturally, and politically encouraging. These men were fired up for Jesus, our country, and Trump, in that order. After everybody caught up a bit and after some introductions (I was the new guy at the meeting), the conversation gradually turned to politics, starting (I believe) with the necessity for a border wall, and Biden’s hare-brained pledge to tear it down.

From there, it was a free-ranging discussion, including vigorous airings of grievances; laments for the state of our nation; pledges to resist excessive government mandates; and repeated admonitions to trust in God. Our Scripture reading was Psalm 138. The Psalm is a reminder that God is in control, and will support us in our hour of need. Here’s verse 7, from the New King James Version:

7Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me;
You will stretch out Your hand
Against the wrath of my enemies,
And Your right hand will save me.