Popular Culture – The Optimistic Conservative

Thanksgiving 2024: A thankful people rests

Now thank we all our God.

Pondering Thanksgiving this year, it’s interesting to review what I wrote last year (2023). This passage jumped out at me:

Our hearts are what matters. The mainstream media present one picture of Americans as a people, but our hearts present another. All is not lost. Never forget that. Never lose heart. Millions of hearts beat in silence to the liberty and grace we believe in.

It looked bleak to many a year ago, I know. A year later, we’ve been given a reprieve from much that has troubled us. Consider the continuation of last year’s thoughts: Continue reading “Thanksgiving 2024: A thankful people rests”

Football Follies 2024: NCAA Week 3

Excerpts are for sissies.

We duly note, as advised by X users who may or may not be fans, that Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift’s boyfriend, is 6’5”. We reserve judgment on any other claims related to his alleged online dispute with [checks notes], well, someone. (Snopes has some backstory on an exchange that purportedly involved Elon Musk, but whether it actually involved either gentleman appears questionable.) Whatever. Multiple sources seem to confirm Kelce is 6’5”.

No, Travis Kelce didn't tell Elon Musk in an X post he could twist him "into a pretzel." https://t.co/pu7nB5mPI5 pic.twitter.com/xam0GKZ381

— snopes.com (@snopes) September 13, 2024

This is why politics, pro sports, and celebrity lifestyle news go so well together. Continue reading “Football Follies 2024: NCAA Week 3”

Total eclipse of the sun 2024

Reflections of an occluded sun.

It’s not often a bunch of middle-aged adult siblings get to gather together – at all – when they live all across the country. But such was the achievement of my birth family for the 8 April 2024 total eclipse visible in North America. We even had two teenagers with us, both in specially-curated schooling situations. The viewing location was Broken Bow, Oklahoma, a small but relatively busy tourist and sportsmen’s destination at the extreme southeastern edge of the state.

Broken Bow has a population of about 4,200 according to online resources. It’s in the Choctaw area of the state assigned to the tribe when it arrived from the tragedy-laden “Trail of Tears” trek from the East, Continue reading “Total eclipse of the sun 2024”

One guitar announces itself to the world

And the whole world changed?

OK, OK, I’ll write about the criticism of Oliver Anthony from National Review.

Next time, Oliver Anthony should consider singing about what makes America a great land — a land of opportunity, not of guaranteed success.

A land made for you and me. | @mawrightjr https://t.co/Yrx1LCVxeq

— National Review (@NRO) August 14, 2023

.@SohrabAhmari It's not "hunky-dory conservatism" to state the facts.

And it's not condescending to speak the truth.https://t.co/HIFVMJzKYF

— Mark Antonio Wright (@mawrightjr) August 15, 2023

I imagine readers all know who Oliver Anthony is. Continue reading “One guitar announces itself to the world”

TOC Ready Room 26 October 2022: 101st Airborne in Romania; Kanye, China, and other wonders

What’s wrong and right with Russia-Ukraine, China and computers, and Ye.

This will be a rough-and-ready Ready Room, intended to spray a few current topics out there without going in-depth on any of them. I really mean it this time, so throw rotten fruit if you catch a glimpse of over-analysis out here in the heathery rough.

The first topic is the headline teaser: deployment of the U.S. 101st Airborne to Europe. CBS did a segment this past week in which its crew accompanied soldiers of the 101st on field activities in Romania, just “a few miles” from the border of Ukraine.

CBS gets an exclusive sneak peak: "The US Army's 101st Airborne is practicing for war with Russia just miles from Ukraine's border"

"It's not just about defending NATO territory," correspondent @charliecbs reports. "They're fully prepared to cross over into Ukrainian territory" pic.twitter.com/XE2OfHZV4o

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) October 22, 2022

A great deal was made of the point that the 101st hasn’t deployed to Europe since World War II. Continue reading “TOC Ready Room 26 October 2022: 101st Airborne in Romania; Kanye, China, and other wonders”