Andrew Hazlett

Our citadel is about to fall. Feckless leaders and compromised ideals weakened our once-proud City on a Hill.

Now, an empty-souled manipulator and his hell-born army have breached the walls of The Establishment. Outnumbered and overwhelmed, the enfeebled #nevertrump resistance crumbles. A darkness spreads across the world, and the forces of good are few and scattered.

Today, in Maryland, we ride out to stem the tide of evil (or at least create an annoying speed bump.)

We cannot win. Our defeat today is certain. But we can make a difference in the larger war.

ARISE AND FEAR NO DARKNESS!

Arise, ye small business owners. And you, preppies, suits, and yachtsmen!

Ride in to battle as brothers, you libertarians and Objectivists, evangelicals, and Jesus freaks.

Remember when we destroyed walls instead of building them? Rise again, you foes of communist tyranny. And you, the fiercest patriots, immigrants – proud Americans by choice!

Go forth! Rotarians, neocons, Megyn Kelly fans, soccer moms, veterans, gun nuts, people who still read National Review on paper, and anyone else who's left!

I wish we had a Theoden, but John Kasich will have to do. Or Ted Cruz, depending on who's running stronger in your congressional district.

Ride! For ruin and the world's ending! Liberty or death!

*...to smile for the camera, to mug and pose, is strictly a learned habit. Historians say that the photographic grin not only a recent ritual, but also a somewhat artificial one: abetted by the camera industry, and entwined with the rise of cheerfulness as an American cultural norm.

Why people used to look so serious in photos but now have big smiles - The Washington Post

I don't think this is "new" at all, but it is alarming.

How a discussion over Halloween costume sensitivity at Yale has devolved into an effort to censor dissenting views...

"...a faction of students are now trying to get the couple removed from their residential positions, which is to say, censured and ousted from their home on campus. Hundreds of Yale students are attacking them, some with hateful insults, shouted epithets, and a campaign of public shaming."

The Halloween Costume Controversy at Yale's Silliman College - The Atlantic

Baltimore, writes Taibbi in Rolling Stone, "has a small, spiffy-looking downtown with a couple of nice ballparks and some Zagat-listed restaurants for the tourists to visit. But outside those few blocks, much of it is a dead zone."

How much is "much of"? A glittering Inner Harbor surrounded by instant death... Sounds like the worst paranoia of city-hating suburbanites. Instead of that lazy cartoon, Taibbi could have painted a more accurate and entertaining picture of the city had he consulted authoritative local sources like this or this.

See: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-ci-no-tax-cut-20150505-story.html

Why invest in Baltimore (as a homebuyer or as a business) when the property tax is more than double that of any other jurisdiction in the state? Larry Hogan could rescue Baltimore with one stroke of the pen if he somehow got the legislature to pass a statewide cap on property taxes.

This song by Saleem and Caleb Stine captures the pride and heartache that comes from an honest look at Baltimore in all its splendor and decay.

America suddenly has adopted North Korean standards of speech and assembly!? ['Team America' screenings canceled in wake of Sony hack - Baltimore Sun]

It's the fastest ideological conversion since Tom Tuttle of Tacoma!

Well, you gotta go along to get along. So, in alignment with the immortal Juche idea of great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung, all cultural workers must now read and adopt Article 52 of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's Constitution:

The State shall develop Juche-oriented, revolutionary art and literature, national in form and socialist in content. The State shall encourage creative workers and artists to produce works of high ideological and artistic value and enlist the broad sections of the masses in literary and artistic activities.

Got that? Or are you still among the running-dog foul-breathed capitalist vermin?

Long unappreciated, even hated, the modernist style of "brutalist" architecture is suddenly everywhere, from a retro BBC spy series to the pages of The New Criterion. Perhaps this renewed interest comes in time to save Baltimore's McKeldin Fountain?

Celebrating the birth of the Internet 45 years ago today, Kevin Marks shared an image of his first website from way back in 1995 and asks others to share links with the hashtag #myfirstwebpage

Mine? I foolishly gave up my first domain (now owned by Funny or Die), but here is an http://www.theoccasional.com/" target="_blank">Internet Archive's Wayback Machine capture from 2000. I think I started this in 1999.