Chicago Boyz

We had a band practice for the first time in 13 years on Saturday. We had three out of four of us. I’m the singer. I’ll go to my grave amazed that talented people are willing to put up with me. But, hey, count your blessings. I guess I add something. Boyish enthusiasm, maybe. Our drummer played guitar at the practice, which he’s actually better at these days, and since his drums have been at someone else’s house for some number of years. He showed up nattily attired in a Ramones t-shirt. I had my Eyeliners t-shirt on. Our monstrously good guitar player, who can take five notes you whistle and turn it into a rock song, is in New York now. But we decided to just get started despite age, fat, decayed skills and absence of our best guy. The goal: twelve songs, 25-30 minute set performable somewhere in Chicagoland sometime reasonably soon. In other words, we aint in any hurry. We’re all keepin’ our day jobs. We decided we’d try a bunch of covers, and as we got going on that we’d maybe see if inspiration struck for some new originals. We’ll resurrect a few of our old originals as a last resort. We rehearsed “Don’t Push Me Around” by the Zeros, “Cesare Said” by Buck, “Everything’s Geometry” by cub (which I’m not sure works with a guy singin’ it …), “Spare Change” by the late, great Chicago all-girl band Bhang Revival. We took a swing at “Pancho and Lefty”, which may not work out, though I still have hope for it, it is such a good song. And we did a shorter version of our old cover of Ace Frehley’s cover of the Rolling Stones’ “2000 Man”. So far so good. I drank Pilsner Urquell throughout, which worked well for me. My kids sat on the basement stairs and watched this whole thing, with unreadable expressions. They seemed to like it OK, once they got used to it. They are stuck with a “weird” Dad. Could be worse. At least we have health insurance.

If this band ever actually plays out, I’ll announce it here. Road trip to Chicago. All ChicagoBoyz readers can crash on my living room floor. Ha. Just kidding.

(I see there are two copies of our ancient vinyl 7 inch ep, only 5 Euros! Woo hoo!)

Evilusion is developing a biblically themed role playing game:

“The main concept behind Eon of Tears is that the player will get a shot at the biggest events in the Bible: unleashing the ten plagues of Egypt, seeing the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha, leading the conquest of Canaan, or performing some of the miracles as Jesus-Christ.

…

The game offers the chance to explore the events of the Bible and rewrite it to a certain extent. Your in-game journal consists of the Bible writing itself; if you do exactly what Moses did, you’ll end up with the very same Bible we know today. Chances are, however, that you will do a few things differently. All in all the choices the player makes steer him on one of the three paths: following the law of God, helping Satan destroy Him, or doing your own business to save your skin.

These choices will have a big impact on your quest. For example, a player that acts evil most of the time won’t get to play Jesus, but Judas instead, or a Pharaoh’s troop commander instead of Moses. Sometimes it is the psychology of a character which changes – an evil player will still play as Joshua, but instead of “liberating the land of Canaan from the evil-doers”, he will “exterminate the sinners to the bitter end”.

That sounds actually pretty good to me. If the concept is well executed I`ll be sure to get this game. Link via Slashdot Games.

As its critics say the so-called “road map to peace” is indeed a benighted attempt to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but at least one thing has to be said in its defense: Even a much more thoughtful and credible approach would have led to the same increase in attacks we just witnessed. The terrorists simply don’t want peace and will respond to any proceedings to that effect with violence in order to derail them.

Israel is well advised to continue in its attempts to stamp out Hamas and all the other terrorist organizations. There is no guarantee that it is going to work much better than it used to, but it still is the best hope to at least weaken them to such an extent that they’ll be unable to sabotage the next and with some luck more comprehensive peace-plan. And there is one thing which is different from the past – an American administration that unambigously assigns the responsibility for the violence to the Palestinian side. The road map’s failure has given GWB some first hand insight into who the real culprits are (and that may be another good thing to say about it). If he follows through on that he’ll give Israel carte blanche on dealing with Hamas et al. and that might make the crucial difference.

Now if only the European Commision could finally understand that Hamas’s so-called “political wing” is nothing but terrorist infrastructure some real progress might be made (link via the Shark Blog). Since the EU is no more of a fast learner than another supranational institution I could mention I’m not holding my breath, though.

The French, man, you want so much to hate them, but they always come up with something. Here is a picture of the new champion of freedom, Sabine Herold. (See this and this.) This appears to be her organization’s website. Her hero is Hayek. She led a pro-War rally. And she doesn’t want to leave France — she wants to take over.

She’s speaking in Milan on June 27th, for something called the Centre for a New Europe. (That’s tomorrow. Too late for a road trip.) They have this blurb up:

Mademoiselle Sabine Herold is a 21-year-old student who is challenging France’s silent majority to revolt against the strikes crippling her country. On May 25, she addressed a 2,000 people demonstration in front of Paris’ townhall. On June 15, she organized and addressed 80,000 people demonstrating against the Unions’ tyranny. Miss Herold has been nicknamed “the Joan d’Arc of the liberals” by Le Figaro and, by the London Times “Mademoiselle Thatcher”. She is “Rédactrice en chef” of the Paris-based free-market association “Liberté j’écris ton nom”.

(Of course I found out about her from Instapundit.)

UPDATE: Libertarian Samizdata has this, and this, and this on our heroine.

I note that Mlle. Herold has been compared to Jeanne D’Arc, which is hyperbole, but harmless. I am however appalled to see certain bloggers saying nasty things about the Maid of Orleans. (No, I won’t link to them.) To all of our uncynical Chicagoboyz readers with open minds and youthful hearts, I commend to your attention the stirring and factually sound chapter from Edward Shepherd Creasy’s Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World: From Marathon to Waterloo. You will need to Scroll down to Chapter IX, “Joan Of Arc’s Victory Over The English At Orleans, A.D. 1429.” Creasy, a fair-minded Englishman was forced by the facts to conclude that the Warrior Maiden was ” the truest heroine that the world has ever seen. ”

Seeing such unfounded slander of St. Joan, who is not here to defend herself, reminds me of Edmund Burke’s wonderful passage about Marie Antoinette, which doesn’t really have anything to do with the point of this post, but I like and so here it is. The Queen had just been executed by the Jacobins. Burke tells us his thoughts when he heard the news, “It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then the dauphiness, at Versailles … ”

…little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fallen upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor, and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult.

But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded, and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever. Never, never more, shall we behold that generous loyalty to rank and sex, that proud submission, that dignified obedience, that subordination of the heart, which kept alive, even in servitude itself, the spirit of an exalted freedom! The unbought grace of life, the cheap defense of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise is gone. It is gone, that sensibility of principle, that chastity of honor, which felt a stain like a wound, which inspired courage whilst it mitigated ferocity, which ennobled whatever it touched, and under which vice itself lost half its evil, by losing all its grossness.

Ten thousand swords, gentlemen, leaping from their scabbards … .

And Lex is feeling like a very sentimental old fellow as he reads these lines again. (Proving once again that he is a conservative, and not a libertarian.)

OK, I’ll make some effort to tie all this together, sort of. God willing, Mlle Herold by her efforts, and the efforts of those she inspires, will restore some scintilla of the greatness her country once had and could yet have again.

The original English-language edition of the new Hary Potter book is the number one bestseller in Germany.