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

You’re so naïve

The Mother of All Middle East Conspiracy Theories By Karl reMarks, 9 Mar 2015   The Middle East is, to coin a phrase, a complex place. All is not what it seems. Appearances can be deceptive. The truth is hard to come by. It is also a place where journalistic conventions necessitate the use of …

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Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2015/03/10/youre-so-naive/

Jehovah will smite you for that

Live from darkest Arkansas By Gene Lyons, February 19, 2015   Housebound in an ice storm, the columnist finds himself distracted by online trivia and tempted to yell at the TV: Washington Post headline: “Williams undone by his gift for story-telling/Anchor’s love of a good yarn played a role in his downfall.” Gee, you think? The …

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Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2015/02/25/jehovah-will-smite-you-for-that/

Our existential superiority

American exceptionalism isn’t our national religion. Criticism of the US isn’t a sin By Megan Carpentier, Tuesday 24 February 2015 12.45 EST   There is danger in buying your own hype, of listening exclusively to the people who think you can do no wrong because you’re you: your right-ness becomes tautological, based on the sole …

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Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2015/02/24/our-existential-superiority/

Lies and puffery

The myth and lie of American exceptionalism By Tom Ehrich, February 24 at 11:32 AM   TAHLEQUAH, Okla. — While I was driving to this eastern Oklahoma city that serves as capital of the Cherokee Nation, the Oklahoma Legislature was considering a bill to ban the teaching of history based on facts. Instead, the legislators …

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Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2015/02/24/lies-and-puffery/

Obama sitting on the throne

  Dear editor: America is in deep trouble! Trouble? From what? Is it from radical Islamic terrorism? Al-Qaida? ISIS or Islamic State? Not even close — it’s global warming! That’s right! That’s what the Obama administration told us recently. They said that “the danger from global warming is far more dangerous to us than extreme …

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Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2015/02/23/obama-sitting-on-the-throne/

Oh brother! Where art thou?!

Dear editor: Oh brother! Where art thou?! I mean really, where do you get this stuff? There must be something in the water here. A few weeks ago, a bizarre prognostication of smiting from outer space appeared on the pages of this newspaper. In the religion section. Apparently asteroid BL86, in just 12 short years, …

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Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2015/02/23/oh-brother-where-art-thou/

If in the next breath

Beating Back ISIS By Martin Accad, February 20, 2015   Every few days, we seem to wake up to another massacre committed by ISIS. And these are, of course, only the ones that the media reports. ISIS, in reality, is committing massacres on a daily basis. We have become familiar with their crimes in Syria …

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Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2015/02/22/if-in-the-next-breath/