Monsieur Jacques d'Nalgar

Under a rock for the next two years.

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

Shades of gray

U.S. Illusions in Lebanon By Roger Cohen, New York Times op-ed columnist Published: December 13, 2010 BEIRUT — Once upon a time a U.S. secretary of state spoke of the “birth pangs of a new Middle East.” That’s now the most laughed-at phrase in gravity-defying Lebanon, a country with two armies, a “unity” government too …

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Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2010/12/14/shades-of-gray/

Dear editor

So America’s millionaires, loyal patriots that they all are, get to keep their Bushy tax break… Here’s a kindly suggestion for an intrepid journalist (if there be any left among the screeching castrati of our once-vaunted fourth estate) – follow these obese felines for the next two years and report back to the rest of us.  …

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Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2010/12/12/dear-editor/

Breaking the silence

By Donald Macintyre, Sunday, 12 December 2010 In pictures:  Soldiers’ testimonies … For anyone who has covered Israel, the West Bank and Gaza over the past few years, reading Occupation of the Territories, the new book from the Israeli ex-soldiers organisation Breaking the Silence, can be an eerily evocative experience. A conscript from the Givati …

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Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2010/12/12/breaking-the-silence-2/

Take me back to Tulsa

My Favorite War By Gail Collins Published: December 10, 2010 … Well, here’s some good news for a change. The Holiday Parade of Lights in Tulsa, Okla., has been saved! I know you’ve been worried. The Tulsa City Council has voted to allow the parade to go forward Saturday night, despite protests against the disappearance …

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Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2010/12/11/take-me-back-to-tulsa/

We’re Number One!

      No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. — Adam Smith Poverty is an abstraction, even for the poor. But the symptoms of collective impoverishment are all about us. Broken highways, bankrupt cities, collapsing bridges, failed schools, the unemployed, …

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Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2010/12/07/were-1/

A conversation…

[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srWgISIs6to[/tube]

Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2010/12/01/a-conversation/

A country of crazies

By Leonard Pitts Jr. [email protected] … We are gathered here today to mourn the loss of America’s mind. It was last seen last month in Oklahoma. There, voters gave emphatic approval to a measure outlawing the use of Sharia law — a strict and often brutal interpretation of Islamic religious strictures — in state courts. …

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Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2010/12/01/a-country-of-crazies/