Margaret Thatcher

"The can be no liberty if there is not economic liberty."

"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."

-Margaret Thatcher

Song Share: Second Hand News by Fleetwood Mac

I recently came across an excellent classic Fleetwood Mac song that I had never ever heard before. The lead track to the landmark album, Rumours, it took me completely by surprise.

I've always liked Fleetwood Mac, but never really thought they were brilliant. Talented pop writers who had a few classics like "Big Love," "Little Lies," and "Medium Antipathy," sure, but I never really thought that they had the capability for something truly superb.

But with an even beat, strong melody, and extremely capable vocal mixing that blends Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham and doesn't actually sound like a goat singing a duet with the Marlboro Man, "Second Hand News" is plainly one of their very best, if not their best. And I know I am prone to hyperbole, but it's no exaggeration to say that the 'pow pow pow pow' chorus is the best thing that has happened to all of humanity including bubble gum ice cream and conscious thought.

What's more, it's surprisingly clean, given that the entire band has been having an affair with themselves for their entire existence. And get this: the bridge is about mowing the lawn, my very favorite house chore! Who doesn't appreciate a great tune about good clean yard work? Not me! Because I appreciate it a lot.

Book Review: Old House of Fear, by Russell Kirk

Written in the early 60s by a conservative intellectual (a contemporary of William F. Buckley) named Russell Kirk, Old House of Fear is the longest wait I've ever had to read a book.

It started on Halloween, 2005. National Review's Corner, which is kind of a group blog for their writers, mentioned the book as being one of the few fictional books that Kirk had written, and said it was a very good Halloween read. It also said that it was out of print and was extremely difficult to find. 

So, I did what anyone else would do and I put it on my Ebay saved search list. If anyone on the planet listed a copy of the book, I would find out about it. Nearly 8 years later, in early 2013, I was cleaning up my search list and came to "The Old House of Fear" by Russell Kirk. Curious, I realized that I hadn't received a single email about it ever. So I did a quick search to see if there were any plans to bring it back into print.

Incredibly, I found it immediately for sale used on Amazon for $.01. Only it was called 'OLD house of fear" and not "THE old house of fear" as I've been searching. The 'The' prevented any emails from reaching me all this time. 

Thrilled to finally find it and to find that it was only a penny (knowing that I would have literally paid 100x that to read this book), I bought it and put it in my reading queue. 

Was it worth the wait? It's was! A good read, and I really enjoyed it, though some will find it a little heavy on dialogue.

At a very very short 193 pages, it moves much too quickly. You wish that you could spend a lot more time in this world. It was billed as a 'gothic horror' story, but it only hints around the edges at supernatural elements. Mostly it's a psychological drama/romance/adventure that's written in one of the most unassuming prose I've ever read. That is to say, you scarcely notice the author at all. He's not showing off with grand phrases or deep imagery. In fact, I'd even say that the entire book was an exercise in trying to say the most amount with the absolute least amount of words.

Briefly (because with a book this short, too much detail would completely spoil the plot), it's about an eccentric millionaire who sends his trusted attorney to Scotland to try to buy an island that has a castle on it that was in his family almost 200 years prior. He runs into a lot of trouble along the way.

The book has many strengths, but one of the biggest is that it's a puzzler; the lead character, Hugh Logan, solves every problem with just his mind. And he's not a genius or a detective or even that unnaturally smart; he just figures out how to get out of situations and he (mostly) succeeds. It was great to keep guessing at how he would get out of each predicament.

The only detraction I have-and it's not even that-is that the book ends insanely abruptly with zero epilogue. It's kind of like if Return of the Jedi ended with throwing the Emperor down the thing, and the credits started rolling. You would assume that Han and Leia would get together and that there would probably be some kind of party and that Luke would be visited by all of his ghost friends (probably). And that would all be very likely. But I completely understand why Kirk didn't do that here; he felt that it was totally unnecessary. And technically, it really is. But still, I wanted to read all of that just 'to make sure.' 

If this is at your local library, pick it up. It's a very quick, very clean book. And there's even a few little passages, here and there, that take some well-deserved jabs at Marxism and Socialism. Even better, they do it completely within the context of the story, so it wasn't like he was going out of his way to make a point. 

This would be a good movie. I would maybe cast Ginny Weasley as Mary and James McAvoy as Hugh. Everyone else would be CGI. They're all just normal humans, but not enough movies create normal CGI humans just for fun, and that needs to change.

Gary Busey

By request. Horrifying, terrible request.

Random Thoughts Volume V

The reaction to my latest lame random thoughts was the highest page views I've had in 2 months, so we're going to give the people what they want! Namely, the deleted items I felt that were too dumb to include in the last one.

• Apparently the plot to the new Wolverine movie involves a guy promising Wolverine that he can make him mortal so that he can die. To do this, Wolverine has to undergo some insanely painful procedure. Maybe it takes his adamantium skeleton off? That part is unclear. However, why doesn't he just jump into a volcano? Just because your injuries heal and you have a metal skeleton doesn't mean that there are no other conceivable ways to die. 
• In retrospect, the PregNancy Drew spin off series was probably a mistake.
• I work with a guy named Jose who failed his driving test because he needed to get new eyeglasses. He made arrangements to see an eye doctor and was given a new pair of glasses. When he got back to work, I went over to him and said, "Jose, can you see?" It was the best thing that ever happened to me.
• I haven't yet had the opportunity to say, "No way, Jose." When that happens it will likely be the 2nd best thing ever.
• Who rents those rip-off movies that they have at video stores/machines? Like, "oh, Summer Switch. Starring Jake Thandlson and Alice Smith. Sure, looks good." Is your free time worth so little? For example, I watch nothing but best picture Academy Award winners. Not even the ones that got nominated. Just the winners.
• The value of having the biggest TV to me is wearing off. I still want one, but the main show we watch currently is 'American Pickers,' and it's one of the few shows where higher definition makes it worse.
• I like a lot of songs by The Lower Lights, an LDS 'supergroup' that plays mostly banjo-type covers of Christmas songs and hymns, but I heard their version of "Ye Elders of Israel" and they had a girl singing it. No offense, but this should be illegal. It's like having guys sing "As Daughters in Zion" or whatever the Beehive song is. It's illegal and wrong.
• It's funny how the 'treehouse' mentality is present with other 'maintstream' Christian churches that don't want to let Mormons into their Christianity club. As if they own what Christianity is. That being said, I don't enjoy hearing about declining membership or attendance or scandals at other churches. The world needs religion-Christianity, specifically, and the more tarnished some churches make that brand, the worse off we all are.
• "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da' is one of the extremely few songs in all of existence that was dramatically improved by a saxophone. There are only like 1-2 others, and for some reason I want to say that one of them is a Daryl Hall song. 

Izzy

*A commission request from my daughter