The Weekly, February 19, 2024
Hi all,
So last week the gents over at The Rest is History did a four part series on Britain in 1974. If you're a history nerd, you should absolutely listen to it.
Why should you listen to it? Well...
As summaries go, this will do nicely: Here's an image of one page of the index of the book that Dominic Sandbrook (one of the show hosts) wrote about 1974 in Britain.
I expect you know who Margaret Thatcher is. Here's some context for the rest:
Ted Heath was the Tory party leader (Britain's right-wing party) who was Prime Minister at the start of 1974. After elections were held that February, Heath did not have enough seats to form a government. So he had to form a coalition government with the third place party, the Liberals. The Liberal party leader was... Jeremy Thorpe, who according to the index once made plans to have his ex-lover killed by alligators in Florida.
Unfortunately for Mr Heath, Thorpe refused to form a government with him and so the Premiership went to the Labour party leader, also featured on this index page, a man named Harold Wilson.
What is not mentioned on the page is that Harold Wilson, in addition to having an actual wife, also had a private secretary who was a political wife of sorts. This secretary was so crazy that several of Wilson's aides had multiple entirely serious conversations about whether or not they should kill her. One of Wilson's doctors suggested he could poison her and arrange for himself to be the one to conduct the autopsy and sign the death certificate.
Again: These were actually serious conversations that aides of the most powerful politician in Britain had in 1974.
So: If you are feeling despondent about the state of America in 2024, well, you have reason to be.
But also there really are nations that have been through crazier things than us and came out on the other side. So there's that.
In any case, the four part series is worth a listen.
Reading
Books
I wrapped up the Matthew Rose book A World After Liberalism and would highly recommend it to you. The book is ample example of why serious Christians should absolutely have enemies to their political right.
I also got down to the library last week and checked out a couple more Jeffrey Stout books. I'll report back as I get into them.
Articles
Kathryn VanArendonk on Bluey
Ashley Bardhan on people using AI to create bots based on their exes
Sam Kriss on buying everything advertised in National Review
Jamie Blackett on the revolt of Dutch farmers
Matt Miller on grad school advice
Matthew Schmitz on volleyball in Nebraska
Emmanuel Katongole on being African
Leah Sargeant on when feast and fast collide
Radley Balko on the retconning of George Floyd
Elsewhere
Food recommendation: I picked up a bottle of this hot sauce last week and have been eating it with an omelette for breakfast. Basically, imagine someone tries chipotles in adobo sauce and says "you know what this needs? Ghost peppers." That's exactly what this hot sauce is. Not for everyone, but if you like spicy foods and enjoy the really earthy, smokey flavor you get with chipotle peppers, this might be up your alley.
Under the Mercy,
~Jake