The Pendragon's Hall

Conspiracy theorists amuse me, but they can be very dangerous. Conspiracy theories spread fear and suspicion, and soon these very chancy emotions become the basis for any decision or any alliance. Conspiracy theorists tend to see cults behind every tree--I can't vote for a Mormon to be President; I can't associate myself with Freemasons. Yet it is not only religious nutjobs that fall prey to this. Following the fictitious imaginings of Dan Brown, art analysts are trying to convince people that there is indeed a woman with a child and a Knight Templar hidden in the background of Leonard Da Vinci's famous painting. Read about it here. The Pendragon is frustrated by the fiction's power over reality. As far as I am aware, even Dan Brown has not tried to sell his story as historical fact--although perhaps he has. Yet here are "scholars" trying to make it stick any way they can. A theology professor of my acquaintance brushed off "The Da Vinci Code" with the statement: "You don't ask a marine biologist to comment on 'Finding Nemo.' Enjoy the thrillers but when the lights come on, it's time to leave the cinema." This would have been a good response for the Christian world as a whole actually, but now that we've made such a big deal about it, I guess there's no going back. The secular world, having found something Christians hate with a passion, are more than willing to play it up, giving it all the legitimacy in its power. After all, blaming past events on an evil Christian cover-up is the kind of conspiracy theory they like the best.

An excellent article on Christian themes in the last Harry Potter book. Contains spoilers. The Pendragon will write my own review when I have time, but for now I am completely in agreement with Barber's views.

A friend devoted to the music of the band "Rage Against the Machine" told an amused Pendragon this past week that any machine will do. I do not doubt my friend's sincerity, but I do not believe for a minute that "the machine" represents every established order. After all, when conservative college students stand up to better than 90% of their peers and professors, nobody remarks admiringly that they are fighting for freedom against the machine. The machine has been pre-set--it represents only the pro-America, right-wing establishment. In places where left-wing establishments hold sway, students are expected to respectfully submit. It may come as a shock to people, but the true heirs to the students fighting for civil rights or to end the Vietnam War in the 1960s when a conservative establishment was indeed in place are the students who today fight for an end to abortion, to stop same-sex marriage and to continue the war on terrorism till victory is achieved. They are the minority, committed to what they believe in, and willing to take a few blows to get the message out there. Those who parrot the left-wing concerns of their professors and the academic establishment are not today's rebels. They are today's sycophants--dedicated only to sucking up to the big man on campus.

I couldn't have put it better myself. Jimmy Carter is a great example of when America goes horribly wrong. The paeans he gets from the media are absolutely sickening. His presidency was a disgrace and his years since have been no better. He should have kept growing peanuts and building houses--the world might actually be a little better off.

Despite the Pendragon's status as an avid Harry Potter fan, eagerly awaiting the release of the seventh and final book, there is a deeper reason to my anger over the premature review of the book that appeared in the New York Times yesterday. There is nothing inherently immoral about the Times' leaking details of the storyline to the reading public--nothing along the lines of leaking top-secret government strategy against Al-Qaeda, for example. But this is only the latest symptom of the disease of news-as-industry. The NYT defended their review, saying they have a right to review any book available for sale (although the Potter book was technically not available until tomorrow). It's the same old story: we're the NYT and we have the right to say and write and do whatever we want because apparently the Founders fought and died for the free proliferation of newspapers. It is a disturbing trend that the Pendragon hopes will be corrected. President Bush wouldn't come down on the newspaper that is giving every aid to the enemy but perhaps J.K. Rowling and Scholastic will take the Times down a peg or two.

Meanwhile, I am psyched. Rowling has said that anyone remotely familiar with the Christian story will be able to guess the ending of her series. That could mean almost anything but I'd be willing to bet (and I here give assurance I have not read the Times' review or any other spoiler out there) that the end features the triumph of good over evil.

Ridiculous! The Pendragon is a great lover of dogs. While I am not fond of cats, I find it reprehensible when people mistreat them. I like animals. The sickening thing about the article in question is that Bobby Byrd thinks he has any right to sound off on the matter. As disgusting as it may be to train dogs to fight and kill, I find it doubly reprehensible for men in sheets to burn homes and murder people based on their race in a campaign designed to intimidate people who may not disagree with them. This scumbag who once recruited for the Klan and has made no public apology for doing so has no moral ground over people who breed dogs for the ring. Yet here he is as plain as day. Maybe we should set up a ring and make him and Ted Kennedy fight. Two old fat men. Could be entertaining.

Out to dinner with a friend this past Wednesday night, the Pendragon noted on a TV screen that one of the Duke lacrosse players falsely accused of raping a black stripper has transferred to Loyola. And why not? It was indeed the Scottsboro Trials all over again: a group of young men accused of rape by lying witnesses on the basis of race. The only difference was that at Scottsboro, the victims were black and their lying accusers were white. The crimes in the South are still the same; but the race of the victim has changed. The fabrication of these stories by a black stripper and a white DA up for re-election is another sorry stain on the pages of American racial history. The Pendragon is absolutely disgusted. I thought perhaps we had gotten beyond this. In Scottsboro, three white sluts accused some black boys riding the rails of rape--nobody noted that the women were ladies about town, with DNA in them from some white men they'd met in a tavern somewhere. The Duke boys faced the same kind of pressure. Some of them weren't even at the party, it turns out. While the Pendragon sincerely hopes that the boys will learn their lesson about inviting strippers over, the fact remains they were falsely accused by a woman who, in the words of one columnist, had more DNA in her than a Red Cross refrigerator! But credibility of witnesses and defendents still doesn't matter. What matters is keeping race at the forefront of everything we do in this country. Hopefully the public outcry will send Nifong into the outer darkness where he belongs, but the Pendragon remains skeptical that we can truly move forward until we embrace the ideal of a color-blind society.

The Pendragon returneth, full of wrath. The media is having its usual circus with the Coulter-Edwards controversy. I may have my own issues with Coulter at times, but the crucifixion is entirely unmerited. It is amusing to note that Coulter's famous comment, "I'll just say that I wish Edwards had been killed in a terrorist attack," was not only taken out of context, it was misunderstood. It really wasn't about Edwards--it was about the media. Coulter was making the undeniably true point that she is not allowed to mock Edwards or to call him on the carpet on some issues, but that Bill Maher can say with a straight face that if Cheney had been killed in a terrorist attack, the world would be better off. Fine, said Coulter, "I'll just say next time that I wish John Edwards had been killed in a terrorist attack." Immediately, people began to mutter that she wanted Edwards dead. That's not at all what she said. She merely noted the disparity between freedom of speech for liberals and for conservatives. Coulter says a lot of harsh things, but one never gets the idea she hates liberals or wants them dead, or injured, or anything else. That's the crux of this issue: liberals hate conservatives' guts and want them silenced at any cost. Hillary Clinton's embrace of the wrongly-named "fairness doctrine" is nothing more than the latest chapter in a decades-long movement to squash freedom of speech in favor of the liberal monolith. They are not content to have dialogue with conservatives--they want them silenced, preferably dead. Lest anyone accuse me of "the paranoid style of politics," the Pendragon begs leave to note that no respectable pundit suggested they wanted Al Gore or Bill Clinton dead. Coulter argued in her first book that Clinton's crimes were so heinous, the only debate should have been over impeachment or assassination, but that is not the same thing. Coulter probably can't even lower her IQ enough to respond to her critics. A play on words is lost on these people. The impression right-wingers took away was that Clinton was undeniably guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors and deserved impeachment. But left-wingers can only see things when they're spelled out. Go...away...and...leave...us...alone. Hang in there, Ann! All it means is that your message is hitting home.

It is the glorious Fourth and at the risk of seeming theocratic, the Pendragon was reminded today of how even as warlike a song as our national anthem has been politically-corrected into the harmless, mealy-mouthed version we sing at baseball games. Yet this song was written at the height of war in which almost all news from the front was bad--where "pitched battle" and "American victory" became mutually exclusive terms. A young lawyer named Francis Scott Key watched all night as a British fleet pounded the American garrision at Fort McHenry in the Chesapeake. The first light of morning revealed that the Americans had held their own. The Pendragon can only imagine the emotion he must have felt. The song was designed to raise morale, and it should, even today. But there is more--being America, devoted to certain ideals, demands a certain amount of responsibility. Our cause must be the cause of justice and our goal in all things should be the protection of our people and our country. Not sure what I'm talking about? Here is the song in its entirety. Happy Independence Day!

The big story in the Buffalo newspapers today was how, despite his campaign promise to be an activist for reform in Albany, business as usual reigns in the state capital under Elliot Spitzer. The Pendragon agrees--same for Washington where Democrats promised to clean house. The incredible thing is that this is still news to people. How can a standard bearer from the party of Teddy Kennedy claim he's going to clean up corruption? The Pendragon would have fully expected disappointment to set in before this. The only mystery is why it took so long.

John Edwards and his wife need to both take extra-strength doses of chill pills. Safe in her knowledge that her own disease protects her from anything like having to take responsibility for what she says, Elizabeth Edwards is taking the field against anyone who dares to question her husband. I'm very sorry Edwards' son died in a car accident--that's terrible--and I'm very sorry Mrs. Edwards has cancer and I'm even sorry that her panty-waisted husband has such thin-skin he can only dish out the scorn, not take it himself. But these are the facts: Edwards had brought his son's death into every speech he has given since he first sought the presidential nomination in 2004. Pity can make people do a lot of things, but his pitiful showings in the current presidential polls (where even a lameduck Democratic Congress is averaging about 14%) suggests that perhaps even Democrats can't stomach the idea of voting for a candidate simply to make him feel better about his dead son. Maybe if Edwards really wanted to use his son's death as a platform for social change, he could sue automobile companies and drive their prices up instead of taking out his angst on the medical industry. When Mrs. Edwards was first diagnosed, the internet news was buzzing with how Johnny was going to manfully soldier on despite his wife's illness. Lovely mental image, that: I care so much about being President, my own wife's physical well-being must take second-seat. Fortunately, Elizabeth won't have to go through her illness alone--if polls are any judge, in a couple months her husband will have a lot of time on his hands. Look for the new autobiography Death in the Family: Two Unsuccessful Bids for a Losing Presidential Ticket coming out sometime in the Fall of 2008. Sorry if this hurts your feelings, buddy, but this is politics you've chosen to enter. It's a contact sport. And if you're going to drag your dead son and ill wife and father's poverty into everything you do (not to mention, pay $400 for a haircut, which suggests perhaps you've outgrown your father's simple tastes), you're going to invite some ridicule. Get over it.