Monsieur Jacques d'Nalgar

Monsieur Jacques d’Nalgar is a working curmudgeon with a cat-killing curiosity in politics, religion, history, and other manifestations of irrational human behavior. He resides in Hot Springs, Arkansas, a semi-autonomous region of the United States (a waning political experiment on the third planet of a minor solar system in a remote corner of the Milky Way galaxy), with his wife and other assorted wildlife. ... Jacques is a son and grandson of Baptist preachers, missionaries and educators. He was born in Beirut, Lebanon, where his father was a school headmaster for more than 30 years (and before that, a B-17 navigator in the last months of WW2). He grew up in the Middle East during the turbulent 50s, 60s, and 70s, but left just before Lebanon’s 15-year civil war nightmare began in earnest. Most reputable historians do not associate the onset of that tragic conflict with his departure. He returned for a visit in 1978, three years into the conflict. His right eye still occasionally twitches as a result. ... After colleges in Oklahoma and 16 years working for a company now forever identified with war profiteering and the dark lord Darth Cheney, he moved his family to Hot Springs in 1994. Jacques spends most of his time reading, blogging under a barely-disguised snotty “Freedom Fries” pseudonym, and staring at the sun. He works tirelessly for the OAFS (Obsessive Alliteration-Fondness Syndrome) Foundation, as both its only benefactor and sole beneficiary. ... Jacques’ political pilgrimage has meandered across much of the regressive-to-progressive continuum. Once a staunch conservative, he found himself suddenly adrift in left field when the rest of the country lurched hard-right after 9-11. He is a frequent critic of our national love affair with wars, rampant nationalism in general, and the resurgent, xenophobic frenzy that masquerades as patriotism. ... He once defined his religious confession as Zen Baptist, a burgeoning movement (of one) within the Southern Baptist Convention, seeking to reclaim the mantle of Christian orthodoxy from fevered fundamentalists just itching for Armageddon. When evangelicals embraced the tangerine wankmaggot Trump and rejected Jesus, he abandoned the family faith and warily embraced Episcopalians' peculiar cocktail of ancient traditions and progressive inclusion. Monsieur d’Nalgar may be reached by sending him your questions telepathically, or by sending him money. He prefers the latter.

Most commented posts

  1. Bane of fundamentalism — 10 comments
  2. An obituary — 10 comments
  3. What we should be talking about — 9 comments
  4. Climate change in Arkansas — 8 comments
  5. Some powerfully stupid stuff — 7 comments

Author's posts

The better they got…

Zajal on Arak By Zein El-Amine, Jan 26, 2015 I remember when electricity came to my village. I must have been about seven or eight. The government installed a transformer in the village center. The thing was housed in a metal locker. The villagers called it ‘The Clock.’ At first, The Clock was a thing …

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Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2024/02/08/the-better-they-got/

Turning Christianity into Cross-tianity

Another Jim Palmer Facebook Post August 28, 2023   “You can’t pin Christianity on Jesus. It’s not his fault. Christianity is Paul’s burden to bear, with a little help from the earliest church councils. In my view, Jesus and Paul would have not gotten along well, and Jesus would have been dismayed by many of …

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Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2023/11/19/turning-christianity-into-cross-tianity/

Another obituary

Dr. Jim Ragland, of Allen, Texas, died September 24, 2023 at the age of 99. He was born in Ada, Oklahoma in 1924 to James Jordan Ragland and Zelda Keithley Ragland. He was preceded in death by his wife of almost 70 years, Leola Lee Ragland, his parents, and his sister JoAnn Craddick. He is …

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Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2023/09/24/another-obituary/

Exorcising a piñata of shame

Why you should swap your bucket list with a chuck-it list By Valerie Tiberius, The Washington Post August 28, 2023 at 5:45 a.m. EDT Valerie Tiberius is a professor of philosophy at the University of Minnesota and the author of “What Do You Want Out of Life? A Philosophical Guide to Figuring Out What Matters.” On my …

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Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2023/09/02/exorcising-a-pinata-of-shame/

Before there was Trump

Is This the End of Bibi? By David Remnick, July 22, 2023   Netanyahu’s coalition of zealots, the resistance in the streets, and the Israeli Kulturkampf. Benjamin Netanyahu has been Prime Minister of Israel longer than anyone in the history of the state, longer than F.D.R. was President of the United States. And yet, for …

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Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2023/07/29/before-there-was-trump/

Don’t know much about history

Sunk By Jeff Stein, August 21, 2012   Gwenyth Todd had worked in a lot of places in Washington where powerful men didn’t hesitate to use sharp elbows. She had been a Middle East expert for the National Security Council in the Clinton administration. She had worked in the office of Defense Secretary Dick Cheney …

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Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2023/05/05/dont-know-much-about-history-2/

Death in a dying town

How Rural America Steals Girls’ Futures By Monica Potts, April 6, 2023   “Boy crazy” was what people called it. “She was so boy crazy,” I would hear about my girlfriends. I never heard the reverse, that a boy was “girl crazy.” Girls having crushes, sneaking out at night to have fun: It seems innocent …

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Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2023/04/17/death-in-a-dying-town/