The January 6 Commission appears to be dead on arrival in the U.S. Senate, which is good news for anyone who knows what an actual storming of a Capitol would look like. As always, Shakespeare was there first, describing the real thing (twice) in Hamlet. We’ll focus on the first insurrection, led by Laertes, son of the royal counselor Polonius. Laertes has learned that his father was murdered, though he doesn’t yet know by whom (it was Hamlet, but Polonius was spying on him from behind an arras). The usurping …

‘Antiquity forgot, custom not known’: Hamlet, Laertes, and the Non-Storming of the Capitol Read More »

In Chicago, democrat Mayor Lightfoot recently announced that she would only accept interviews from Black journalists. This is of course blatantly racist. The mayor is an anti-white racist when it comes to journalists, and an anti-Black racist when it comes to murder victims. This modern bigotry finds its Shakespearean parallel in The Merchant of Venice, when the Prince of Morocco seeks the hand of Portia, a rich Venetian heiress. The prince senses that his darker skin will be an issue and he tries to pre-empt it in his introductory speech: …

‘The shadow’d livery of the burnish’d sun,’: Leftist Racism and The Merchant of Venice Read More »

Oberon: “Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.” Titania: “What, jealous Oberon! Fairies, skip hence: I have forsworn his bed and company.” The feud in A Midsummer Night’s Dream between the King and Queen of the Fairies, Oberon and Titania, can tell us a lot about the skyrocketing commodity prices we are not facing. The two fairy royals accuse each other of being unfaithful, perhaps a side effect of immortality. Their feud, of course, represents political discord, and Titania in a magnificent speech lays out the cost of the failed governance …

‘The ox hath therefore stretch’d his yoke in vain’: A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Commodity Prices Read More »

King Lear’s Edmund, a crafty and flawed character but one who suffers for his sins and achieves a certain degree of wisdom, could offer some useful advice to President Biden during the emerging gas crisis. The entire American Southeast is facing gasoline shortages, with North Carolina already declaring a state of emergency. The cause is a hack of the software controlling a critical pipeline. All President Biden has said is that the hackers were Russian, but that he’s not sure if the Russian government is involved, though Putin should do …

‘This is the excellent foppery of the world’: King Lear’s Edmund and Biden’s Fatalism Read More »

As though he were a modern-day Antonio from The Merchant of Venice, President Biden is surrounding himself with people who hate Jews. His nominee for Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Sarah Margon, republished with approval an excerpt from a Peter Beinart article (“I No Longer Believe in a Jewish State”) which called for one state and the destruction of Israel. Here’s Shylock reminding President Biden, in the guise of Antonio, of his many public insults: Shylock: “Signior Antonio, many a time and oft In the …

”Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last’: Shylock and the Jew-Hatred of the Political Left Read More »