Art by Jules Smith
The Lays were composed by Macaulay in his thirties, during his spare time while he was the “legal member” of the Governor-General of India’s Supreme Council from 1834 to 1838. He later wrote of them:
The plan occurred to me in the jungle at the foot of the Neilgherry hills; and most of the verses were made during a dreary sojourn at Ootacamund and a disagreeable voyage in the Bay of Bengal.
The Roman ballads are preceded by brief introductions, discussing the legends from a scholarly perspective. Macaulay explains that he intended to write poems resembling those that might have been sung in ancient times.
“Then out spake brave Horatius,
the Captain of the Gate:
“To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods…
Regarding the new Caliphate
In 634 AD, Muslim forces conquered Damascus and gained control of Syria, which was then part of the Christian Byzantine Empire. It has happened again. Jihadists are once more in control of the nation, and a new Caliphate has been born.
Last week Syria’s ruler Ahmad al-Sharaa signed a “temporary” constitution that puts the country under Islamist rule for five years during a “transitional” phase. Suppose you believe that the boys in Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) al-Sharaa’s party intend ever to relinquish power. In that case, you are dangerously delusional and probably should have someone else manage your personal affairs.
A new constitution will be drafted. It hardly seems worth the time to read it. The law of the land is now Sharia, and the ruler will be a Muslim. The constitution is the Koran, or rather, the Koran interpreted by men who still live in the 6th Century.
Of course, there’s a purge of the pro-Assad people and his tribe (Alawites). The people doing the killing are not all Syrians. The usual collection of madmen from a host of nations has flocked to Syria to help with the beheadings and executions. Not only are these foreign fighters helping with the ongoing genocide, but they are now training what will be the army of this new caliphate. These include Belarussians, Chechens, Uyghurs, and Tajiks.
One group of foreign fighters recently posted an Arabic message celebrating its participation in the training: “Graduation courses and preparing soldiers are ongoing. We are a nation of action. Our enemies are many, and preserving what has been gained through the sacrifices of hundreds of thousands is an individual duty. Monkeys [i.e., Alawites] on the coast [i.e., Latakia and Tartus], Zionists and their agents in the south, and atheists [i.e., Kurds] more malicious than any in the east.”
On March 1, 2025, the Syria-based Egyptian jihadi Salafi cleric Yahya Abu al-Fath al-Farghali, who used to be a religious official in HTS, published a letter calling on HTS to implement Islamic law and to move Sunni jihadists and their families into Alawite areas. This is what the Serbs used to refer to as ethnic cleansing.
Al-Farshali blamed the ongoing killings on religious minorities and the oppression of Sunni Muslims by Assad. He added, “This is likely to happen repeatedly, with external and internal enemies striving to inflame the situation and undermine any attempt to de-escalate. Further, the eruption of a kind of guerrilla war in the coastal [areas] by rebel elements is hazardous.” The only solution per al-Farshali is “the enforcement of shari’a [Islamic law] and the elevation of the word of Allah.” He also warned that a secular governing system would be “the most dangerous alternative” because it would damage religion and life.
The Kurdish Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) in Northeast Syria responded immediately to the new constitution and condemned its implications in no uncertain terms.
“The SDC strongly rejects any attempt to recreate dictatorship under the guise of a ‘transitional phase.’ Any constitutional declaration must result from genuine national consensus, not a project imposed by one party,” the council said, calling “for a complete reformulation of the declaration. It must ensure a fair distribution of power, guarantee freedom of political activity, and recognize the rights of all Syrian components. Furthermore, it should adopt a decentralized democratic system of governance with clear mechanisms for achieving transitional justice.”
The Kurdish National Council (ENKS/KNC), an umbrella group of Kurdish opposition parties, also objected to the new constitution.
“We were surprised by the constitutional declaration issued in Damascus on March 13, 2025, which was disappointing and far from the aspirations of building a democratic state that reflects the true diversity of Syrian society,” ENKS said in a statement, adding, “this declaration was prepared by a committee that does not represent the various political, ethnic, and religious components, depriving it of inclusivity and national consensus, and leading to the entrenchment of exclusionary and monopolistic governance.”
UAE – USA Alliance
His Highness Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Ruler of Abu Dhabi and National Security Advisor, met with President Donald Trump at the White House Monday, highlighting the long-term strategic partnership between the UAE and the US.
Discussions between the senior Emirati and US government officials focused on deepening economic collaboration, particularly in AI, advanced technology, energy, infrastructure, and healthcare.
The UAE is also building a “divert airfield” on Socotra Island at the strategic mouth of the Red Sea. If Diego Garcia leaves (the UK has been making noise), the US can use the extended runway on Socotra, which the UAE annexed from Yemen. The UAE wants an unbreakable relationship with the USA.
During his official visit to the United States, Sheikh Tahnoon also met with key US government officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, to discuss strengthening regional and global stability, advancing joint investments, and leveraging AI and digital infrastructure for sustainable economic growth.
With a long track record of successful investment and trade, the UAE has a $1 trillion economic relationship with the US – and wants to do more. This results from direct investments in US companies and significant purchases of products and services across key sectors such as aerospace, energy, manufacturing, technology, life sciences, and healthcare. This mutually beneficial relationship serves all 50 US states and industries, creating jobs for Americans and driving American innovation.
Long Covid
Some call it CovAIDS since it destroys the immune systems of those afflicted. Long Covid and what others call “Long Vax.” Tying to lingering effects of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein from infection or vaccination, these conditions have left people searching for answers. The emerging new illnesses suffered by people following COVID-19 and Covid vaccine related to the “spike protein” reminds me of Gulf War Syndrome. Soldiers were forced to take an injection, and the reaction by many of them led to debilitating symptoms and sometimes death. In the case of the Long Vax, some are getting sick even if they had asymptomatic COVID-19 or didn’t feel ill from the vaccination at the time.
One of the more vocal pro-vax celebrities who ended up with CovAIDS is Megyn Kelly. She spoke of her situation to the NY Post.
Reports suggest millions globally are grappling with chronic symptoms after COVID-19 infections or vaccines. At the heart of the issue? Microclots—tiny blood vessel blockages that researchers say could explain the fatigue, brain fog, and pain plaguing patients.
Symptoms in the Spotlight
Extreme tiredness and crashes after activity
Mental fuzziness or “brain fog”
Trouble breathing
Heart palpitations or irregular beats
Persistent pain or nerve issues
Other possible symptoms: retina detachment, tinnitus, hearing problems, gastric problems, atrial fibrillation, heart attack, heart arrhythmia, other heart issues, stroke, fainting, blood clots, paralysis, muscle disorders, iliac vein collapse, pelvic problems, tingling, weakness, heavy legs, and more.
Some scientists see connections between micro clots and other chronic illnesses—like arthritis, diabetes, or even Alzheimer’s. Could unraveling Long COVID and Long Vax hold keys to broader health mysteries? This question is driving new research.
The People’s Republic of China
(h/t Claudio—Strategypage) China openly boasts in unclassified military publications that the most effective way to overcome the American military advantage is by obtaining, stealing, or, if need be, mastering, American technology, and improving on it. This effort is multi-pronged and advancing in over a dozen areas. I refer you to the linked article for details.
The question of what to do about it is complicated, but it’s not. Quarantine the People’s Republic of China. Relentlessly hunt its agents and their proxies and neutralize (I didn’t say kill) them so the mischief ends. Will that work—never entirely—but we shouldn’t import or export to China or do business with anyone who does. Will that pinch a lot of pocketbooks? It will. Can it be managed politically for that reason in any free society? That’s the larger question.
Bullet Points:
** Musk derangement syndrome – While some European leaders would like to replace Musk and his Starlink telecom system, there appears to be no better alternative, much like his Tesla EVs in the U.S. If you want an electric vehicle. Tesla is still the best option. If you wish to utilize space, SpaceX is the only real option.
** From WSF – A well-written piece on Doc Holliday. (Kilmer as Doc, right)
** The case can easily be made that the U.S. Department of Education’s actions have mixed effects. As the NAS documents, it doesn’t help itself by not providing clear information on the return on investment for its spending. The debate over confining the federal government’s involvement in education policy will continue, but cutting back some of the bloat that has persisted for decades doesn’t seem to be as alarming as the persistently stagnant student academic outcomes, the ever-growing cabal of special interests that has for years leveraged the agency to expand federal expenditures, or the programs within the department that have become vessels for progressive political goals.
** England Hates itself… “William Shakespeare’s birthplace will be de-colonised over fears that portraying his success as the ‘greatest’ playwright ‘benefits the ideology of white European supremacy’. Shakespeare’s Birthplace Trust owns buildings in the playwright’s hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon. It wants to ‘create a more inclusive museum experience’ and announced it will move away from Western perspectives after concerns were raised that Shakespeare’s ideas were used to advance ‘white supremacy’ ideas.” Ah, the English.
** (zerohedge) AI & Crypto Czar David Sacks says that this immature display, widely derided by conservatives, provides a revealing glimpse into the Left’s underlying mindset. It exposes their belief that they alone should control American taxpayer funds, contrary to the Trump administration’s clear mandate to eliminate financial waste and abuse across the federal government.
“I was at the State of the Union and on the balcony. I was looking down at the Democrats holding up these silly little signs and the sign that I saw the most was one that said ‘Musk Steals,’” Sacks began in his Saturday evening interview with Fox News’s Lara Trump. “I thought about that.
How is Elon stealing? He’s returning money to the Treasury. Then it hit me, they have come to believe that this taxpayer money is theirs and by returning it to the Treasury, Elon is stealing from them. That’s my best explanation of why they’re so hysterical about this.”
** Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
Trust the Science
Since scientists first began playing around with dangerous pathogens in laboratories, the world has experienced four or five pandemics, depending on how you classify them. Let’s delve.
A research mishap almost certainly sparked the 1977 Russian flu. Some Western scientists quickly suspected the odd virus had resided in a lab freezer for a few decades, but they mainly kept quiet for fear of ruffling feathers. Yet in 2020, when people started speculating that a laboratory accident might have been the spark that began the Covid-19 pandemic, they were treated like kooks and cranks.
Many public health officials and prominent scientists dismissed the idea as a conspiracy theory, insisting that the virus had emerged from animals in a seafood market in Wuhan, China.
When a nonprofit called EcoHealth Alliance lost a grant because it was planning to conduct risky research into bat viruses with the Wuhan Institute of Virology — research that, if performed with lax safety standards, could have resulted in a dangerous pathogen leaking out into the world — no fewer than 77 Nobel laureates and 31 scientific societies lined up to defend the organization.
Work done at the Chinese National Bioweapons Laboratory – The Wuhan Institute of Virology’s research was safe and the pandemic was caused by natural transmission: It seemed like consensus.
We have since learned, however, that to promote the appearance of consensus, some officials and scientists hid or understated crucial facts, misled at least one reporter, orchestrated campaigns of supposedly independent voices, and even compared notes about how to hide their communications to keep the public from hearing the whole story.
Details that have since emerged about Wuhan laboratory’s research show that safety precautions may have been terrifyingly lax. As someone with first-hand knowledge of Chinese “clean rooms,” I assure you that they are terrifying.
Five years after the onset of the Covid pandemic, it’s tempting to think of all that as ancient history. We learned our lesson about lab safety and the need to be honest with the public—and now we can move on to new crises, like measles or the evolving bird flu, right?
Cell, a prestigious scientific journal, weighed in. Researchers, many of whom work or have worked at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (the same institution), describe taking samples of viruses found in bats (the same animal) and experimenting to see if they could infect human cells and pose a pandemic risk. This sounds like the research that should be conducted — if at all! — with the highest safety protocols, as W. Ian Lipkin and Ralph Baric discussed in a recent guest essay.
But if you scroll down to Page 19 of the journal article and squint, you learn that the scientists did all this under what they call “BSL-2 plus” conditions. This designation isn’t standardized, and Baric and Lipkin say it is “insufficient for work with potentially dangerous respiratory viruses.” If just one lab worker unwittingly inhaled the virus and got infected, there’s no telling what the impact could be on Wuhan, a city of millions, or beyond it, the world.
It’s time to proactively quarantine China – permanently.
Education – and the Big Federal Department
Even a political neophyte knows that the Department of Education has become toxic. The lion’s share of all education decisions and money are made and spent on the state level, which is as it should be. The Ed Dept is crammed full of well-paid and insular educators in DC, where the rotten 98% give the other 2% a bad reputation.
Since its founding in 1977, $1.4 trillion has been spent on the Ed feds, and the proof of the pudding is in the gagging. As our education has become more expensive, student test scores have plummeted. Our students can somehow count all 57 of the two genders but nothing else. They read a few classics, and most of the history they “know” just isn’t so.
As the great Dennis Miller once noted, the fact that only one of the “Three Rs” actually starts with the letter “R” tells you everything you need to know.
Enter Grandma Squanto Warren, being asked for her reaction to Trump’s much-needed culling of the Education Department last Friday. A shrewd politician would have said, “I welcome any efforts to scrutinize the department because it can do a better job than it’s been doing. But Trump is taking the wrong approach, blah, blah.” What did Warren say? Watch the 45-second video of her quasi-teary, contentless mush of glittering generalities that never comes within a mile of the reality of the grift-a-palooza that is the DC education establishment.
I haven’t seen a fake Indian that sad since the Italian-American actor with the stage name “Iron Eyes Cody” (his real name was something like Rocco Vincenzo Corleone) made those commercials crying over littering in the 1970s.
But what else would we expect from the empty headdress from Massachusetts? My only disappointment was that she didn’t take the time to emote about her fond memories of the one-room school tepee where she learned her ABCs (A- always, B- be, C- Cherokee) back on the wide-open prairies of Martha’s Vineyard.
***
Identify the Aircraft
1
If you don’t get this, you’re beyond hope
2
Three built – a little more challenging than the above.
3
Twelve Navy variants built
4
265 built
Parting Shot
End
(1) Dauntless
(2) Seen it before, but don;t remember.
(3) Can’t remember the USN designation, but it’s the DC-5
(4)Skyknight
-Kle.
You get stuck in Chicago Midway long enough, you’ll get bored and wander around and find an SBD hanging from the ceiling. It’s always been a shock to me how small those planes are. Is there a Wildcat thusly displayed at O’Hare? I’ve always avoided that airport like the plague and couldn’t tell you.
…or bedazzled by the Tunnel of Lights. Thought that was both cool to do but really strange, like I’m going to emerge into some dystopian futuretime…only to realize I’m in the midst of The Hoard. Always disappointing.
I thought the stupid Tunnel of Lights was a Detroit Metro thing.
They have one there too?! Gotta be the same design board consultant.
The Wildcat in the O’Hare terminal is to honor Butch O’Hare. No doubt that the airport terminal is a mess, but if you happen to be routed through ORD, it’s worth the walk to look at the display.
My dad (who flew Avengers) always had the opposite size reaction. We went down to the Intrepid
museum, and when he saw the Tomcat, he said “that’s no fighter, it’s bigger than a B-17!”.
*
The thing that gets me about the WW2 birds is that anything non-structural on them, you can
cut up with a jackknife. Then there’s the WW1 planes…
– Kle.
The F-14 was built around long range fleet defense and the AIM-54, which was a big beast. The original hope would be that they could carry six, but practically, they carried four and a couple of AIM-9s. The film Top Gun featured their air combat maneuvering, but practically, they were designed to launch their missiles against 100+ incoming Backfire bombers before they launched on the carrier group.
“they were designed to launch their missiles against 100+ incoming Backfire bombers”
As if the USSR were going to use WW2 tactics in the age of nuclear weapons.
Yeah – well, that was the plan.
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Douglas SBD Dauntless
2. Douglas D-558-1 Skystreak
3. Douglas R3D-2
4. Douglas EF-10B Skyknight
Excellent.
Indians: If I recall correctly LCDR Waldron of VT 8 was part Indian, unlike Warren, who is 100% crooked.
From the late Bishop Fulton J. Sheen: definition of an atheist – “Someone with no invisible means of support.”
:-)
England diminishing the greatest ever playwright to be more “inclusive” or sensitive to the modern weak-minded…is clearly a mental disorder (h/t Savage). Just got my [strong home brewed] coffee, and what’s on my mind first thing has nothing to do with tearing down statues or see that the venerable Shakespeare’s reputation needs to be rewritten into something only a college educated idiot could generate between their addled ears, or worse, “Hey let’s fiddle with this virus to make it zoonotic while we eat our bat nuggets from the wet market”. Nope, thinking on picking up the Missus at the airport later, cleaning stalls and feeding the critters, and wondering if I can get more Shop re-organizing completed before having to make the I-25 Chariot Race to DIA without incident. Maybe it’s just me…guess I’m [mostly] the parting shot: Normal (altho the brothers may disagree). No way can I…do I…think of what sort of anarchy needs doing when rolling out of bed. Time to bring back Mental Institutions…problem is they’d all be full on day one.
***
Elon Musk is under attack by The 5% lunatics, who wake up and manage to convince themselves firebombing other people’s property is fully sanctioned (by Satan maybe). Time for some proper FBI/DOJ work here to get these leftover EcoTerrorists without jobs (save for Soros funding) in front of a [proper] judge.
***
Today PDJT will sign the EO eliminating Linda McMahon’s job…and as a normal person she’s happy about it because she knew going in that was the plan. Plan-Execute-Do The right thing. Yup.
***
As for Covid symptoms…how does one who is…ahem…more seasoned….with a lifetime of trying hard to Darwin Award oneself from time to time, determine if any of those listed symptoms are due to living life working hard or some other thing, or caused by a manipulated virus? Slammed the chest the other day (don’t ask…wasn’t t-h-a-t bad-heh). For three days thought I was going over the abyss edge as this little pain in my right chest was bugging me, thinking “this could be it”…then remembered I mashed myself and with some Blu Emu it went away (albeit took longer than ‘normal’). Getting old is definitely not for the feint of heart.
I do know that since I had Covid, but not the shot, I do not get the rest I once did.
Of course, I’m 73 this year. But I’m in relatively good health….
Eh, I’m not too worried about the Shakespeare thing. It’s not clear who wrote the plays and sonnets anyway. Was it Wm Shakspere (as spelled by the man from Stratford upon Avon himself), or Sir Francis Bacon? Or Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford? Or Sir Thomas North? There is also a theory that Shakespeare was really Amelia Bassano, a Jewish woman from Italy (I am not making this up). I like the Bassano theory, because being from two powerless and underrepresented minority groups means that the BBC will not dare displace her by making a documentary proving that Shakespeare was an FTM transsexual negro Muslim from what is now Uganda.
—
Of course, there are people claiming that Bassano was a negress. Unfortunately, I’m not making this up either.
https://m.facebook.com/watch/?v=3874444926177534&vanity=blacknews
Interesting…none of what I learnt in HS AP English.
Thing for me is the Left look in the rearview to wreck the place while proclaiming they are progressing (or: doth protest too much), juxtaposed to the rest of most of us who look forward planning a productive life to “do good”only to deal with the aforementioned Merry-Andrews.
Good writing on various subjects. Thanks
Re: Doc Holliday “Surprisingly, while in Colorado, he never killed anyone. ” I’m proud to be able to make the same claim.
Might not be able to keep his cool today as the demographic and mentality has changed significantly (the 15% dictating to the other 85%).
“New Syria”. Monumental own goal of mind boggling incompetence by State (and Israel)? Or all part of The Plan?
—
Best not to think about that. We showed that dictator Putin who’s boss, eh? Took out his puppet ophthalmologist Just Like That. Take that, bad vodka man.
Small victories are welcome. All of this is the thief believing the stolen goods are now their rightful property due to mere [ill-gotten] possession.
—
As far as I’m concerned We The People need more of the Administration putting these types on notice (the German dude saying “don’t break the law in the USA or you might get deported. Uh, yeah, woks for me). Pile on…then “the fun” will really begin as the true “no clothes” of the reprobate class will further emerge in full view as they go further Scanners (self ID). When your political opponent is flailing in ineptitude and panic, run the score up (scorched earth isn’t the first “means”). Winning for the people matters in this bizarroworld ‘game’. Looking like Johnson and the CIA were behind JFK…anyone surprised?…as those still not ID’d, more recently tried to take out my candidate…twice. Okay, maybe scorched earth is fine.
To their credit, in the interim, Israel sank the entire Syrian Navy, and took out what air force they had. The New Syrians have technicals (Toyota pick-ups with machine guns on the back). They’re engaging in a drill, baby, drill program to generate cash flow. They Russians won’t sell them anything on credit and the Syrians will sell oil for dollars. How ironic.
“New Syria” ?
You mean the UK?
– Kle.
Doc Holliday
At the end of the article is an explanation of why he was in Glenwood Springs; hoping the natural springs and vapor cave could help his lungs. Not a far fetched idea.
My maternal grandfather was struck down with what was diagnosed as rheumatoid arthritis. He was taken to Saratoga, WY on a stretcher. A few soaks in the springs and he was able to walk. He took a job managing the business and soaked daily for many years. Later, he owned a small ranch outside of town and was able to live a long and productive life. I should add he was on tough s.o.b.
So I just got a new lens in my right eye (cataract due to high-dose chemotherapy steroids). Outpatient specialty eye surgery facility. It’s a machine, and I mean that in a good way. Just prior, about 8 people in the waiting room. I’m in the corner near the door, back to the wall. A loud woman comes in with her husband. Both white, 60’s. They sit down and for totally unclear reasons start talking about people in Vietnam eating dogs. Okay, whatever. Then they expand the topic to “cat soup.” Much hilarity. The noise is annoying me more than the “racism”. Also, we’re all NPO (no food or drink) and it’s rude IMO to babble about food around people who can’t eat.
—
After a few minutes of this nonsense I lean forward so they can see me. “So. If you go to Korea and see a bunch of golden retrievers with red ribbons around their necks? They aren’t pets.”
There is dead silence. I smile. “Thought you might like to know.” The loud people look at each other, still silent. The man sitting next to me says nervously, “I guess it’s all cultural. We eat hot dogs and lord knows what’s in those.” He was polite so I’m polite. “I wasn’t offended by the dog remarks. But it’s bad manners to be loud about food when most of us haven’t had food or water since midnight.”
—
Spreading hatred and discontent 😀
Well played…again. If you ever find your way to Northern Colorado I’m buying…steak not red ribboned deeohgee.
MrsPaulM had similar medicine induced cataracts last year (some doctors…grrr). She installedthe Ferrari grade adjustable lenses. Incredible tech. Me, did the lasering in ‘04 as I tend to destroy spectacles. Still good eyesight.
Mike, how was that accomplished when your eyes are parallel to your bodies long axis? Did they rotate the machine 90 degrees?
Surgeon was a Chinese woman. I guess she’s used to the 90-degree slant.
Good pick.
“Quarantine the People’s Republic of China, but that’s waysist” said the w-w-wascally wabbit
” the army of this new caliphate… Belarussians, Chechens, Uyghurs, and Tajiks.” might these be considered “mercenaries” under Vladimir Vladimirovich’ definition”
IMHO, the EU (had they any military forces that didn’t include Arab Muslims, Turks, or Persians) would likely find it to their benefit to get involved in western Yemen.
If I included Taiwan it would have been racist. As is, no. Not sinophobic.
Ah, the English.
I read the comments to see what the general reaction to her was.
Pretty unanimous. Nobody thought that was funny. I didn’t even get the context and could only guess.
Which I didn’t want to do.
Best comment:
People say it’s just a myth, but I have seen with my own eyes a female comedian make an audience sincerely laugh without resorting to transgressive sex jokes or feminist grievances. She was trying to parallel park in front of the club.
Ed,
I too, have watched an excellent performance by a comedienne – on TV – name of Kamala
😜