DATELINE Elgin, Moray—King Macbeth released a new campaign ad today, condemning his political opponents for taking his words out of context.

In the ad, he says, ‘When my opponents quote me as saying,

“I am in blood

Stepp’d in so far, that, should I wade no more,

Returning were as tedious as go o’er.”

‘They are willfully misinterpreting the plain meaning of my words. Rather than admitting that I was guilty of killing King Duncan, I was talking about our corporate guilt, and the culture of violence which—sadly—prevails in contemporary Scotland, and which my opponents in fact encourage when they oppose my sensible and moderate spear control laws.’

Thinking about Macbeth today. I’ve always liked the play, even before I realized it was set in the Viking Age, and peripherally in the Viking world. I could put Macbeth in one of my Erling novels if I wanted to. They were contemporaries, though Macbeth was considerably younger.

You’re likely aware that Shakespeare’s play is a complete libel. Shakespeare was writing under King James I, who believed himself a descendent of Banquo. Which explains all the business with the witches telling Banquo he would “get kings” without himself becoming one.

The real Macbeth was a popular and successful king, almost to the end. He killed King Duncan (who was not an old man but a young one), not in bed, but honorably in battle. Contemporary accounts describe him as both “red” and “golden-haired.” Very likely, I suppose, he was strawberry blond. He was confident enough in the security of his throne to make a pilgrimage to Rome in 1050, during which he is reported to have given money to the poor “as if it were seed.” Continue reading Hurrah for Macbeth! →

Touching again on a controversial topic this week, let me link to Voddie Baucham’s article arguing that homosexual marriage cannot be considered a civil rights issue. For one thing, race and gender can be determined by heritage and blood work. Homosexuality is undeterminable outside of self-identification, and even there, we have problems. “How about men who are extremely effeminate but prefer women, or those who once were practicing homosexuals but have since come out of the lifestyle?” What about Jerry Sandusky? Who is and who isn’t a homosexual? Do we have only their word to go on?

Baucham goes on:

Perhaps the most damning aspect of the civil rights argument is logical unsustainability. If sexual orientation/identity is the basis for (1) classification as a minority group, and (2) legal grounds for the redefinition of marriage, then what’s to stop the “bisexual” from fighting for the ability to marry a man and a woman simultaneously since his “orientation” is, by definition, directed toward both sexes? What about the member of NAMBLA whose orientation is toward young boys? Where do we stop, and on what basis?

In short, gay is not the new black. It’s another front in a morality war.

I have nothing in my head tonight. I’m thunk out. So I post the picture above, showing part of the entrance to a harbor on Utsira Island, off southwest Norway. One of my great-great-grandmothers was born there.

The photo comes from a fine website whose glory, alas, is past–Haugesund Today. The site operator used to publish a photo or two almost every day, but he’s lost enthusiasm. No doubt it was a lot of work. It was nice while it lasted.

Kevin Marks writes about the struggles in The Dark Knight and No Country for Old Men on Reel Spirituality: “Batman, a creature of the night anyway, becomes now ‘the dark knight,’ assuming the blame for the evil unleashed upon Gotham by The Joker, in order that faith be restored in a criminal justice system, and the fear that grips those who walk home in the dark can at least be alleviated by knowing that the police are back in power, and are now chasing the bizarro Batman/savior figure for his crime of turning against those he had sworn to protect.”

Heroic sacrifice is an epic theme. It was touched on in the Spiderman movies, though not hammered like the responsibility angle. It’s what Saving Private Ryan tried to tell us. Perhaps we’ll see the theme carry the story in the next Batman movie.

The FBI busted some bad guys a while back after they took over 4,000,000 computers with malware that redirected their Internet pointers. Get the gory details here. (via Dave Lull)

Fort Snelling in 1844. Today the trees are so thick and high all around that you can’t see the river from the fort.

On Independence Day I took an out of town visitor to see Historic Fort Snelling, our major local historical site, which has been reconstructed to appear as it did around 1820, and is staffed by costumed interpreters. I’m glad I did, because I came up with a couple article ideas which I don’t intend to squander on you lot of freeloaders, but to sell to The American Spectator Online (or so I hope).

The temperature was officially 101º, which gave us a vivid lesson in life before air conditioning (consumer report—it was bloody uncomfortable). But at least I wasn’t marching around in a wool uniform like the support staff. (We Vikings generally wear linen tunics in the summer, even though they’re not strictly vouched for by archaeology. Those authenticity officers know there’s a point beyond which you can’t push a guy with an axe.)

The main problem with Fort Snelling is that it’s not all that memorable, in historical terms. Nothing big really ever happened there. Graf von Zeppelin spent some time there as an observer, before going home to invent the dirigible. General Custer cooled his heels there for a while in temporary disgrace, before being called back west for his Date with Destiny.

Dred Scott. Continue reading Great Scott →

A happy and glorious Independence Day to all of you.

And, on a personal note, thanks to Hunter Baker, who plugged The Year of the Warrior over at National Review Online today.

“There are imaginative tales burrowing into our children’s hearts, past the ‘watchful dragons’ of their minds, to inform who they are at the deepest levels. . . . We want to serve you as you seek to foster holy imagination in the children you love.” Smith rallies an admirable team to write some good, good stuff.

The Diversity of Ingiald is my new column, up at The American Spectator today.