THE ONLY thing better than a pint is a free pint.

We here at The Irish Post are really wishing we were home this weekend, because one of Ireland's biggest drinks companies are offering a pint-- completely on the house-- to anyone who places their order while wearing red socks.

To celebrate the upcoming Bank Holiday weekend in Ireland, Smithwick's are offering a free pint of their Red Ale from Thursday the 24th to Sunday the 27th of October between 6 - 8pm.

All you have to do is go to one of the huge amount of participating pubs across the country, show off your dashing red socks, and enjoy your free drink.

The offer is valid across nine counties, although be warned-- pubs in Dublin 2 are finishing up the promotion on Saturday, so don't be disappointed if you arrive on Sunday expecting to rock out with your (red) sock out.

Here are all the pubs taking part:

DublinCassidy's, Flannerys Bar, Ryans, Jimmy Rabbittes @ The Camden, The Sports Bar @ The Camden, Devitts of Camden Street, Anseo, The Bleeding Horse, The Odean, Harcourt Hotel, Russell Court Hotel, Bernard Shaw, Portobello Hotel, The Landmark, Whelan's Bar, Opium, The Jar, The Mount Pleasant Inn, Birchalls, McSorleys, Taphouse Bar and Kitchen, Smyth's Of Ranelagh, Humphreys, Farmer Browns, Mother Reillys, Rody Bolands, Ashton's Bar & Bistro.

GalwayThe Pillar House, An Tain, Joe's Bar, Broderick's Bar, Dunlo Tavern, Brewery Lane.

RoscommonSpells, The Hatch, Mollys, Creatons.

MonaghanThe Squealing Pig, Terry's, (The Shamrock Bar) Peaky Blinders.

DonegalArnold's Hotel, Molly's Bar, Patsy Dan's, Oyster Bar, Corner House, Abbey Hotel, Reveller, Beehive Bar, The Hill's, McCafferty's, Doherty's, The Bank, Nesbitt Arms Hotel WSPR, Teague Breslin, The Cavern, The Rusty, Slieve League, Central Bar.

LeitrimGlancy's Waterfront Bar, The Poitin Still, The Bush Hotel, Paddy's Bar, Flynn's Bar, Cryan's Hotel, Gings Lounge, Murthaghs Bar, Cryan, The Anchorage, Dunnes Bar, McHugh's Bar, Percy Whelans, Buffalo Boy Steakhouse.

MayoMellett's, Gilligan's Bar, TF Royal Hotel, Moclairs, Doherty's, An Sean Sibin, The Loft, Hogan's Bar, The Cot and Cobble, T Breathnach, Tarbh 47, Rouse's, An Bolg Bui.

SligoFoley's, The Brewery, Fiddlers Creek, O'Neills Bar, Shoot the Crows, Thomas Connolly's, Kennedys, The Embassy.

TipperaryRoarty's, Glen Head Tavern.

All of these pubs, plus every pub taking part in the upcoming Sessions At The Shannon Festival in Carrick-On-Shannon will be giving free pints to red sock wearers.

Slinte!

See the article here:
There's a free pint for everyone in Ireland this weekend and all you have to do is wear red socks - Irish Post

With due respect to Kavanagh and Heaney, Yeats is my most cherished Irish poet. And among his vast collection, The Wild Swans of Coole is my favourite. I was, therefore, glad for the opportunity to visit the place that did much to stimulate the poets artistic imaginings. Coole Park, Co Galway was once the home of Abbey Theatre cofounder Lady Augusta Gregory, and served as a spiritual home and wellspring of creativity for many giants of Irish literature, including Yeats, Shaw, Synge and OCasey.

Setting out from a well-appointed visitor centre that unobtrusively occupies the old stables of the estate, I followed the Seven Woods Trail that was, as Yeats predicted, dry underfoot. Soon came a wow moment and the trees parted to reveal an aqua marine lake of intense beauty in a basin of deep green; Coole Lough is one of Irelands foremost examples of a turlough. Almost unique to this country, these consist of small lakes in porous limestone where water levels rise and fall with startling rapidity.

It was here that Yeats came upon his nine-and-fifty swans. He was referring to the whoopers that still arrive from Iceland every October to winter at Coole although how he managed to count the swans accurately seems a mystery.

The stay-awhile charm of the lakeside seduces me, so I relax languidly on a convenient rock. Its the wrong time of year, thus no bell-beat of their wings above my head from the whoopers. In compensation, a bevy of mute swans glide silently past on still waters that do indeed mirror a clear sky.

Written in the autumn of 1916, the evocative Yeats poem seems, at this moment, a quest for the security of a sublime and reassuring timeless in an increasingly turbulent world.

Onwards in the manner of Yeats as I trod with lighter a tread the Rocky Field that forms the flood plain of the Coole river. Limestone occasionally peeps above the surface as a reminder that the area is actually within the Burren lowlands. Eventually abandoning the waterside, I tag woodland paths that today are charmingly dappled with tree-moderated sunlight. A delightfully wide variety of tree species flank the trail, including a collection of exotic looking conifers that are native to North America.

Next stop is the splendid walled garden that contains the famous autograph tree of Coole. It was here, at the bidding of Lady Gregory, that the superstars of the Irish literary revival carved their initials on to the trunk of a magnificent copper beech. The letters have, of course, faded with the passage of time, although the hugely flamboyant initials of George Bernard Shaw immediately capture the eye above their more reticent companions.

Beyond the garden is the elevated plinth where once stood the great house of Coole. Sold to an uncaring Irish State by Lady Gregory in 1927, the contents were auctioned after she died and the vast literary collection was scattered worldwide. The house was then allowed fall into decay and, in a monumental act of State vandalism, was eventually demolished, thus removing from future generations a great part of Irelands literary heritage.

Returning to the visitor centre with a somewhat heavier tread, I wish fervently that Coole is a place where the lessons of history are soundly learned.

Getting there: Coole Park is located 4km northwest of the town of Gort, Co Galway. It is signposted from exit 16 on the M18 motorway

Suitability: Level circuit offering walker-friendly terrain

Time: 2 hours

Distance: 5km

Map: Available from the visitor centre

Read the rest here:
Walk for the Weekend: Coole Park, Co Galway - The Irish Times

Brought to you by Smithwick's

Now that we're heading into the colder nights, we could all do with a bit of extra colour in our lives. If that colour comes in the form of a pair of bright red socks, all the better.

Plus, putting them on this weekend could earn you one free pint of Smithwick's Red Ale. All you have to do is turn up to one of the participating pubs, and you'll be rewarded with a cool pint of the good stuff.

It's taking place in pubs all across Ireland from Thursday, 24 Sunday, 27 October between 6-8pm, with pubs in the Dublin 2 area running it from Thursday to Saturday.

That gives you plenty of time to pop down to a shop to grab a pair of red socks. Unless you're already ahead of the game and have a gorgeous pair sitting at home.

We're calling them gorgeous because all red socks are, by default, things of beauty. Here is the full list of pubs taking part:

Cassidy's, Flannerys Bar,Ryans,Jimmy Rabbittes @ The Camden,The Sports Bar @ The Camden,Devitts of Camden Street,Anseo,The Bleeding Horse,The Odean,Harcourt Hotel,Russell Court Hotel,Bernard Shaw,Portobello Hotel,The Landmark,Whelan's Bar,Opium,The Jar,The Mount Pleasant Inn,Birchalls,McSorleys,Taphouse Bar and Kitchen,Smyth's Of Ranelagh,Humphreys,Farmer Browns, Mother Reillys,Rody Bolands,Ashton's Bar & Bistro.

The Pillar House, An Tain, Joe's Bar, Broderick's Bar, Dunlo Tavern, Brewery Lane.

Spells, The Hatch, Mollys, Creatons.

The Squealing Pig, Terry's, (The Shamrock Bar) Peaky Blinders.

Arnold's Hotel, Molly's Bar, Patsy Dan's, Oyster Bar, Corner House, Abbey Hotel, Reveller, Beehive Bar, The Hill's, McCafferty's, Doherty's, The Bank, Nesbitt Arms Hotel WSPR, Teague Breslin, The Cavern, The Rusty, Slieve League, Central Bar.

Glancy's Waterfront Bar, The Poitin Still, The Bush Hotel, Paddy's Bar, Flynn's Bar, Cryan's Hotel, Gings Lounge, Murthaghs Bar, Cryan, The Anchorage, Dunnes Bar, McHugh's Bar, Percy Whelans, Buffalo Boy Steakhouse.

As well, every pub that's taking part in the Sessions At The Shannon Festival will be rewarding red sock wearers with one free pint each!

Mellett's, Gilligan's Bar, TF Royal Hotel, Moclairs, Doherty's, An Sean Sibin, The Loft, Hogan's Bar, The Cot and Cobble, T Breathnach, Tarbh 47, Rouse's, An Bolg Bui.

Foley's, The Brewery, Fiddlers Creek, O'Neills Bar, Shoot the Crows, Thomas Connolly's, Kennedys, The Embassy.

Roarty's, Glen Head Tavern.

Brought to you by Smithwick's

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People all over Ireland will receive a free pint for wearing red socks this weekend - JOE.ie

Complete casting has been announced for the upcoming North American tour of Lincoln Center Theater's critically-acclaimed production of Lerner & Loewe's My Fair Lady. Joining the previously announced Shereen Ahmed as Eliza Doolittle and Laird Mackintosh as Professor Henry Higgins will be Leslie Alexander as Mrs. Higgins, Adam Grupper as Alfred P. Doolittle, Wade McCollum as Professor Zoltan Karpathy, Kevin Pariseau as Colonel Pickering, Gayton Scott as Mrs. Pearce, and Sam Simahk as Freddy Eynsford-Hill. Directed by Bartlett Sher, the tour will tech and launch in Syracuse, NY before officially opening at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Official Press Opening is Thursday, December 19.

The production's ensemble will feature Mark Aldrich, Rajeer Alford, Colin Anderson, Polly Baird, Mark Banik, Michael Biren, Shavey Brown, Anne Brummel, Henry Byalikov, Mary Callanan, Jennifer Evans, Nicole Ferguson, Kaitlyn Frank, Juliane Godfrey, Colleen Grate, Patrick Kerr, Brandon Leffler, Nathalie Marrable, William Michals, Rommel Pierre O'Choa, Joanna Rhinehart, Sarah Quinn Taylor, Fana Tesfagiorgis, Michael Williams, and John T. Wolfe.

Lincoln Center Theater's production of Lerner & Loewe's My Fair Lady is the winner of 5 Outer Critics Circle Awards including Best Revival of Musical and was nominated for 10 Tony Awards including Best Musical Revival, 5 Drama Desk Awards including Best Musical Revival and 3 Drama League Awards including Best Musical Revival. The production, which premiered in the spring of 2018, recently ended its long run at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater on July 7, 2019 after playing 548 performances.

Adapted from George Bernard Shaw's play and Gabriel Pascal's motion picture Pygmalion, MY FAIR LADY, with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe, premiered on Broadway on March 15, 1956. The legendary original production won 6 Tony Awards including Best Musical and ran for 2,717 performances making it, at the time, the longest-running musical in Broadway history.

Boasting a score that contains such now-classic songs as "I Could Have Danced All Night," "Get Me to the Church on Time," "Wouldn't It Be Loverly," "On the Street Where You Live," "The Rain in Spain," and "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face," Lincoln Center Theater's production of MY FAIR LADY was hailed by The New York Times as "Thrilling, glorious and better than it ever was. A marvelous and transformative revival." New York Magazine described it as 'Enthralling," adding that "Bartlett Sher's glowing revival proves that a beloved musical from another era can keep on kicking." And Entertainment Weekly raved "A sumptuous new revival of the most perfect musical of all time. A masterful piece of entertainment."

Lincoln Center Theater's production of Lerner & Loewe's My Fair Lady features choreography by Christopher Gattelli, and has sets by Michael Yeargan, costumes by Catherine Zuber, lighting by Donald Holder and sound by Marc Salzberg. Music supervision is by Ted Sperling, featuring MY FAIR LADY's original musical arrangements by Robert Russell Bennett and Phil Lang, and dance arrangements by Trude Rittmann. Orchestration adaptation is by Josh Clayton and music direction is by John Bell.

The North American tour of Lincoln Center Theater's production of Lerner & Loewe's My Fair Lady will be produced by Nederlander Presentations, Inc.

For the complete 2019-20 Tour Schedule, please visit: http://www.myfairladyontour.com

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View post:
Adam Grupper, Leslie Alexander, and More Complete the Loverly Cast of MY FAIR LADY on Tour - Broadway World

Arriving onstage coiled and poised to strike, the auditorium thrilled with anticipation and schadenfreude at the prospect of what Edna might inflict on them. Edna's talent for mockery is legendary, and as several hapless latecomers filed in, you wondered which part of her vast arsenal of delicious putdowns and backhanded compliments she might reach for.

As it happened, she pursed her lips and kept her powder dry, saving the barrage of banter and casual judgment for "non-entities" in the front rows and, after interval, selecting three guests to come up on stage for a taste of talk-show treatment.

That went swimmingly. Edna asked one woman about her husband's most annoying habit, and on discovering he was dead, held a mortified expression for a few moments before replying: "Well, there's nothing more annoying than that!"

Playful audience interaction was the main game, but more traditional jokes, potted reminiscences and occasional bursts of song featured too. Just under the make-up, you could tell Humphries was itching to be politically incorrect, and though nothing too outrageous was said, a gag about Edna's trans stand-up comedian daughter Valmai proved a bit of a clunker.

Not, mind you, because it disrespected trans people. Edna's approach to buzzwords like diversity, inclusivity, gender and ethnicity satirises suburban blindness, or at best lip-service, to them, and if there was any doubt about that, it was removed at the start, when the Dame acknowledged the Pratt family as traditional owners of the land on which we met.

It's more that with Edna's trans daughter the landscape of political correctness isn't assiduously surveyed. And Humphries seems to have poached his punchline from George Bernard Shaw, who used to appear in dressing rooms after shows he did not admire and exclaim, "Marvellous is not the word!"

Dame Edna maintains a terrific rapport with her public, though, and Humphries' enduring comic genius survives the show's loose format and digressive style. Fans should grab, while they still can, the chance to see Edna live.

Here is the original post:
Years on, there's still nothing like a Dame - The Age

At Luckys bar on Meath Street in Dublins Liberties, Adam Fogarty, aka MathMan, is drinking an IPA called Hop-On with a picture of the Dart on the can. The rescued Metro Burger sign that used to hang from the now demolished Screen Cinema building takes up a corner of the smoking section.

His creative partner, the rapper Mango, arrivesand as Drexciya booms over the speakers, they leave the bar, walking around the corner to the Liberty Belle on Francis Street, stopping to gaze at something no longer there, the site of the demolished Tivoli Theatre/District 8 venue. Both men fall silent looking at the remnants of street art in the closed-off carpark. Like their parents before them, a new generation of Dubliners now trace the citys landscape in absentia, memories held in outlines of places no longer there. Pints of Guinness are placed on a barrel outside the pub, and the group know as Mango xMathMan begin to discuss their debut album, Casual Work.

The weight of Dublins shifting environment and economics is shouldered by many artists in the capital, yet while some seeking success tend to look outward, urban introspection and the specificity of place has yielded interesting results in recent years. Acts such as Fontaines DCand Kojaque have centred the city in their work, with both romanticism and resentment at play. Reclamation is another. Contemporary creative representations of the city have moved far beyond the tropes of Poolbeg prints, and seep into everything from skateboard culture, to hiphop, to apparel, to street art.

Its in this context that Casual Work arrives, 4 years in the making, a year-and-a-half after their EP Wheel Up. At times, Casual Work transmits the literal sound of the streets, the actual noise of the city. The first thing on the record is immediately Dublin, the sound of town breathing and seagulls screeching. Zero, zero : zero, zero, the album begins, a reset, Another day in the Dub.

What follows is the anthemic, questioning, sincere, and bittersweet Dublin ode, Deep Blue, featuring Lisa Hannigan. This earnest transmission of resilience and tenacity positions their art in opposition to external forces piloting the city, towards what, we dont know.

Ostensibly, Mango occupies three emotional spaces as a rapper. One is the hard-jaw-ism of an early track, Badman, which on this album, also extends to Chest Out and Mad Ting. This is the public Mango, the endlessly sociable crew leader, session ready, laden with confidence and swagger Fag and a stout, take after McGowan, he raps on Chest Out. The lyrical flip side is the private Mango, for whom the crowds and clinking of glasses fade away and the late night emotional interior is cracked open, unleashing a stream of self-doubt, insecurity, fear and hope. The third is both overarching and embedded, the part of identity that is utterly rooted in a sense of place, and contains the questions such an attachment raises, namely whether ones connection to Dublin is an anchor or a millstone?

MathMans primary accomplishment has been to capture the eclecticism of a particular kind of Dublin taste, and manage to contain all of its contradictions. Music in Dublin is not as segmented as seemingly disconnected waves of success are framed as. The underlying culture is revelling in a blend of everything everyone is doing and more across all artistic disciplines. The audience freely meanders through clashes of taste and genre, with so many tribes bumping off each other, and all ending up at the same session at the end of the night.

The common denominator is the lust for music as a therapeutic release, of which rave culture is such a integral part. The essence of rave underscores a good deal of MathMans productions, which often ignore the delineations of genre by embarking upon triple sonic entendres that incorporate nostalgia, esoteric winks, and the bald and bare forcefulness that encapsulates so much of contemporary music globally.

This is a melting pot first brewed on the sticky floors of teenage discos flavoured by the unmistakable scent of a malfunctioning smoke machine, brought into bigger clubs and on to larger stages, while maintaining the sense of bedroom studio graft. MathMans music is sedimentary, containing within it layers of time, the anthropological observations of what makes a city bop, and the memories of settings where a sound first connected; clubs, sheds, car parks, back seats, bedrooms, fields, tents, bars, basements, warehouses, studios, headphones.

Getting to this point was not easy. The group is independent; no industry management, no label, no booking agent. The highs of shows such as their buzzing Saturday night gig at Electric Picnic this year are accompanied by the lows of the financial reality of trying to make their art work (Mango still works in a shoe shop stock room). Cracks began to show, which, remarkably are exposed, not smoothed overon the album. Running through Casual Work is a narrative of creative tension and a friendship fracturing. Whats the craic bro, its me, an early interlude runs, MathMan leaving a voicemail on Mangos phone, Listen, I dont know whats going on with you at the moment, but theres something I need to tell you. Youre acting the b******s right now man, and youre messing a whole load of people around . . . Look, I think we can really make a go at this, so gimme a call when youre ready to work.

You cant sugarcoat it, Mango grimaces. What you hear on the album is a watered down version of the reality at that time, MathMan explains. At that time, Mango was having a rough year. A long-term relationship ended, there were deaths in his family, he lost a job. He had tried school, college, music with a former group The Animators, and it felt as though nothing had worked out.

I just went, f**k this. I went drinking, sessioning, riding, taking everything, I just went out figuring myself out, but out on a binge. I think you can get lost in that. I was like, f**k studio money, I remember you [MathMan] turned around and went, what do you mean f**k studio money, youve got a fresh pair of Timberlands on your feet you f**kin eejit. I wasnt making priorities right. To be honest I was like, if I go, I go. Highway to hell, doing what I want. I think everybody goes through that at some stage. Thankfully I had someone saying, yo, what the f**k?

MathMan pinpoints a moment at a Maverick Sabre show in the Academy where it was time for Mango to snap out of it. He took Mango aside and told him that selling out shows like this could be their reality, but it wasnt, and if Mango kept up his messing, it never would be. I was upstairs in the Academy, Mango says, looking at the bar and looking at the stage and went, I want that the stage more than I want the bar, the party.

That choice didnt exactly result in a monastic lifestyle, but perhaps creatively a more fruitful one. What is strangely compelling about this record is how it ignores as many environmental influences as it sucks in. Hypebeasts, beware, Casual Work is in many ways the antithesis of the transient fashions that dominate hiphop.

While it possesses some of the directness of grime, there are also tinges of neo-soul and doses of garage, there are strings and there are moments of stunning vulnerability. On the closing track, Said & Done, one such moment lands like a gut punch. Three times I tried to take my life, Mango raps, I dont want to talk about it no more.

We dont follow trends. Its not about making whats popular now, MathMan says, with complete conviction.

Both are full of enthusiasm for the creativity bubbling in Dublin right now. The city is illuminated with talent, even if its becoming harder for those very people making the town what it is, to live in it.

We sit here and look left and right and are surrounded by cranes and cultural institutions in rubble. We reject that, MathMan says, Whats happening around us does not represent us as artists, or as citizens of this country, or people who live in this city. We reject this. We hate this. The reason we came to the Liberty Belle is because we feel comfortable here. Its part of who we are as people. We wont grow in parallel to whats happening in the city right now because we detest it.

Mango steps in: Also, were not allowed to go along with it. Prosperity is for those who are given it. Thats a very specific group. Were not allowed that . . . But see them cranes? They say to me, your time is up soon, son. Thats what it feels like to me. The Bernard Shaw is across the road from where I live. I walked home from work one day and something was missing, the Charlo [Charlemont Street] flats were just gone. I came home late one night after a session and saw the amount of cranes and its like: wow, this is what this is, this is a war on us. And if we cant use our voice, were f**ked.

Read the rest here:
Mango x MathMan: 'Prosperity is for those who are given it' - The Irish Times

The setting was the Gladstone Library, a dramatic, imposing room named after one of Britains most cherished politicians, though on closer inspection, its grandeur was somewhat faded. Ornate faence-tiled columns held up lofty, sculpted ceilings punctuated with chandeliers above mahogany shelves along the rooms perimeter lined with faithful replicas of the 30,000 volumes spanning 17th- to 20th-century political material now safely housed at the University of Bristol.

In many ways, this staid, cavernous hall filled with ersatz books at the very heart of the National Liberal Club established by William Gladstone himself is the perfect metaphor for the state of liberalism today. Which brings us to why an unlikely crew of atheists, secularists and evangelical Christians were gathered here on a balmy Sunday October morning. Instead of bedlam, there was unity and congeniality. At stake, it seemed, was the complete takedown of liberalism and, with it, Western civilization.

The conference, organized by Sovereign Nations and titled Speaking Truth to Social Justice, featured the masterminds behind the so-called Sokal Squared scandal: Helen Pluckrose, Peter Boghossian, and James A. Lindsay. Its name is a nod to an earlier hoax, which parodied the extreme postmodernist criticism of science, perpetuated by physicist Alan Sokal, who graced the occasion with his presence. Last year, the three current and former academics, who are prominent speakers in atheist and humanist circles, published bogus research papers in several academic disciplines gender studies, queer theory, critical race theory, intersectional feminism, fat studies and postcolonial theory to highlight the charlatanism and obscurantism that stand in for scholarship, the lack of academic rigor and flaws in the publishing protocols of these fields. Some of the hoax papers they submitted border on outright hilarity. One published paper suggested that dog parks perpetuate canine rape culture while another was basically Mein Kampf dressed up in intersectional feminist lingo. The trio popularized the term grievance studies to refer to these fields because, according to Pluckrose, they begin from the assumption of a grievance and then bend theories to confirm it.

They found in Michael OFallon, the evangelical Christian founder and editor-in-chief of Sovereign Nations, an ally who is likewise deeply concerned about our postmodern era in which grand narratives that have guided our discourse are collapsing. What he fears is the encroachment of the secular theoretical perspectives that undergird social justice upon the gospel and the church, weaponizing identity to upend the Christian interpretation of doctrine.

And so an unholy alliance between a bunch of atheists and evangelical Christians was born. Having the inaugural conference dedicated to defending liberalism in a venue named after the Grand Old Man of liberalism could not have been more symbolic. William Ewart Gladstone was a four-term British prime minister whose political doctrine centered around peace, economy and reform. He instituted laissez-faire economic policies and free trade, extended voting rights, promoted equality of opportunity and self-governance of Britains colonies and disestablished the Church of Ireland (so that Roman Catholics no longer had to pay tithes to support the Anglican Church), among other reforms, and was an early if ultimately unsuccessful advocate for Home Rule for Ireland.

Deeply religious with an evangelical sensibility, Gladstone served under Queen Victoria in a society shaken up by the publication of Charles Darwins On the Origin of Species, in which the theory of natural selection was pitted against the reigning theory of creation in an epistemological zero-sum game. The Victorian age might have been characterized by an ever-widening rift between science and religion, but it was during this time, in the grand quarters of the Gladstone Library, that two unlikely members of the National Liberal Club met and bonded: George Bernard Shaw, the Irish atheist playwright and polemicist, and G.K. Chesterton, the English writer and theologian whose work in Christian apologetics needs no introduction. These two men of great stature often engaged in intellectual sparring, but they were also friends, each recognizing in the other a common humanity through jokes and banter and harboring a respect for the others colossal genius.

Today, this state of affairs between two such people holding diametrically opposed views seems almost quaint. Both OFallon and the grievance studies authors have come to realize that the post-Victorian culture war is no longer about metaphysics, the supernatural realm or miracles. They have come together to defend what Boghossian calls the rules of engagement and cognitive liberty, the very forces that enabled the warm friendship between Shaw and Chesterton despite their occupying antagonistic sides of an ideological axis.

Principled-based rules of engagement create an environment in which dialogue can be fostered and cultivate a culture that values freedom of speech and dialectics that eschew ad hominem attacks and mischaracterization. They begin with, according to James Lindsay, putting forth the best arguments from opposing and differing sides in the best-possible faith, and seeking understanding and communication across divides. To him, this is the way to preserve all that is good and effective about free liberal societies that tolerate and welcome differences of opinion. Those societies seem to be under threat, given recent headlines about the rise of cancel culture and public debates about the moral validity of punching Nazis and hurling milkshakes at people with whom we disagree.

According to Boghossian, the fault lines in Culture War 2.0 center around the correspondence theory of truth and the role that intersectionality ought to play into our worldview. The correspondence theory of truth states that that there is a truth and that our beliefs correspond to a stable, knowable world. Intersectionality is the idea that there are intersecting identities that comprise ones identity (e.g., lesbian, white, disabled, etc.) that contribute to a framework of power dynamics and moral hierarchy. Much of social justice ideology and activism is predicated on intersectionality and standpoint epistemology, which in contrast to the correspondence theory states that it is ones position in a system that determines whats true. A liberal atheist, Boghossian says that if the conservative Christians at the conference believe Jesus walked on water (that either is or is not true for everyone regardless of ones race or gender) and they value discourse and adhere to basic rules of engagement, then they are closer to my worldview than an atheist whos adopted intersectionality and does not adhere to the rules of engagement.

These views are causing a schism in every walk of life, from knitting clubs to religious organizations. Its ripping apart Christianity as the church grapples with what OFallon has characterized as apostmodern crisis. Intersectional Christians believe one must examine scripture through an intersectional lens and have adopted tactics from their secular counterparts to protect these ideas from scrutiny.

The deeper problem is that wherever intersectionality goes, cognitive liberty is lost. One can no longer pursue truth and seek it for oneself; one must subscribe to the new secular dogma of intersectionality or risk being labeled a heretic or blasphemer. And there are a multitude of speech and thought-policing mechanisms to assure that intersectionality takes root: Bias Response Teams, political correctness, Offices of Diversity and Inclusion, safe spaces, trigger warnings, etc. Taboos and stigma attached to running afoul of the moral orthodoxy eliminate the rhetorical space that allows these ideas to be critiqued, further entrenching the moral orthodoxy itself. The evening was perfectly capped off with an appearance by Andrew Doyle, the columnist and comic behind the woke parody Twitter account Titania McGrath. Doyles satire has been so on-point that on a few occasions, Titanias feed has been more prophetic than parody.

When the Sovereign Nations conference was first announced, Richard Dawkins signal boosted it on Twitter, only to be dogpiled by critics accusing the new atheists of aligning themselves with right-wing Christian fundamentalists. The grievance studies authors had to contend with myriad charges of grifting, an overused slur virtually impossible to dispute. Calling someone a grifter accusing one of holding a point of view that violates ones own conscience simply for profit motives effectively delegitimizes that persons sincerely held views. Unless youre a mind-reader, there is no way to prove it. Eventually, the mob won and Dawkins deleted his tweet.

When asked what the goals of this new venture are, the organizers and speakers asserted that they share a vision of growing a movement that tries to clarify what social justice is about and offers alternatives that dont rely upon postmodernist ideology to address issues of social inequality and other grievances. By design, the movement should be apolitical and encourage the breaking down of barriers that prevent meaningful dialogue across divides (mostly via guilt by association), fostering free and open dialogue even with people with whom we have substantive disagreements.

Boghossian and Lindsay have gone a step further and written a how-to-manual titled How to Have Impossible Conversations, a guide through conversational techniques necessary to talk about the wedge issues du jour: climate change, religious faith, poverty, immigration, gun control, etc. Almost a century ago, Shaw and Chesterton took part in the kind of public debate that exemplifies an impossible conversation it just happened at a time and in a climate that made it possible.

It is this spirit that these evangelicals and atheists are fighting to restore. Faith or no faith is no longer the dividing line here. Bad faith is. And you dont need to be religious to argue in bad faith.

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The unholy alliance between atheists and evangelicals - The Spectator USA

Shakespeares whining schoolboy creeping like snail unwillingly to school might well have been more sprightly and full of beans had he been around today in California. The authorities of the Golden Gate state have had a law passed which mandates that all middle schools can begin classes no earlier than 8 am, and high schools not before 8.30 am, thereby giving students more sleep time. California is the first state in the land of the free and home of the brave to enact such legislation which says `aye to more shut-eye but its example might well be followed in other parts of the country. Sleep therapists say that slumber unlumbers the mind of harmful stress and its beneficial for people of all ages to get in forty-one, or even forty-two, winks in preference to the conventionally recommended forty.

Indeed, sleeping on the job can sometimes prove to be the most efficient way of getting the job done. The German chemist Kekule is said to have hit upon the structure of the carbon molecule while he was in the arms of Morpheus. Freud used his innovative interpretation of dreams as the keystone to the understanding of the psyche through the working of the subconscious. As the poet more succinctly put it, I sleep, and my soul awakens. When a playwright protege of Bernard Shaw remonstrated that the Irish dramatist had been caught napping during a performance of the acolytes latest work to which hed been invited to give his opinion on, the Shavian response was Sleep, sir, is an opinion.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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The Land of Nod gets affirmative nod in California: Putting snooze in the news - Economic Times

But there appears to be precious little inner peace in Meghans troubled life today.It has been three years since Meghan went public with her romance with Prince Harry, and since becoming the Duchess of Sussex last year the very idea of sitting beside the ocean to contemplate the universe is unthinkable without being watched and condemned by social media trolls.So its little wonder that, as Harry and Meghan plan a six-week break, to include a large chunk of time in her Los Angeles homeland next month, rumours that they want to quit Britain are rife with suggestions that the couple will be house-hunting in Malibu and Beverly Hills.

And when all the leaves are brown and the sky is grey in England, you can be sure that Meghan is California Dreamin.

But its not just a song, its an animated principle that runs deep through Meghans veins.

I was born and raised in Los Angeles, a California girl who lives by the ethos that most things can be cured with either yoga, the beach or a few avocados, she once wrote on her now-deleted lifestyle blog, The Tig, replete with snaps of sun-kissed palm trees and Meghan running, power-walking and performing yoga asanas.

When Meghans official coat of arms was unveiled last year, Buckingham Palace explained, the heraldic shield she helped design included two golden rays representing the California sunshine against a blue background symbolising the Pacific Ocean, set on a field of grass with golden poppies Californias state flower. I love being a California girl, she has said. Theres no place like home.

But unlike Dorothy in the Wizard Of Oz, Meghan cant tap her ruby slippers together and transport herself home.

Her legion of critics angered by Meghans repeated breach of Royal tradition throwing her own baby shower, not bringing her newborn to the hospital steps to meet the world, stopping Harry hunting and kissing and cuddling him in public might do well to understand that no HRH title or diamond tiara can change Meghan from the California Girl she is at heart. Her existential problem: Is Meghan too Californian?

George Bernard Shaw said that Britain and America are two countries divided by the same language, and Meghan is still reeling from the culture shock.

Meghans dilemma is rooted in her DNA, growing up in the most liberal, self-indulgent, touchy-feely, pseudo-spiritual state in America.

It is a scientific fact that if you stay in California you lose one point of your IQ every year, said author Truman Capote, no fan of the locals penchant for narcissistic introspection. In California everyone goes to a therapist, is a therapist, or is a therapist going to a therapist.

Meghans long-divorced parents, former TV lighting director Thomas Markle and Doria Ragland, were married in an Indian ceremony at the Self-Realization Fellowship temple in Hollywood, in a ceremony presided over by Brother Bhaktananda in blazing orange robes.

Doria, now aged 64, is a yoga instructor, who called Meghan Flower.

I started doing mummy-and-me yoga with her when I was seven, Meghan has recalled. I was very resistant as a kid, but she said, Flower, you will find your practice, just give it time. In college I started doing it more regularly.

Like many Californians, Meghan set great store by the importance of personal exploration. Self-discovery and self-actualization are virtually enshrined in the state constitution.

In coming to Britain shes had to give up her meditation guru named Light, and her psychic Richard Win, who predicted she would be moving to the UK months before Meghan met Harry.

She has moved from California, where making a human connection means expressing your innermost doubts and fears to total strangers you meet in the queue at Starbucks, and come to a country where emotional diarrhoea is considered impolite.

Worse, she has joined The Firm, as the Royals call their family, where emotions and self-interest have been suppressed for centuries beneath the stiffest upper lips in the nation, in what has proven a culture shock off the Richter Scale.

Meghans move to Britain has also seriously cut back on her available time for meditation, exercise and yoga.

I love an intense vinyasa class and even better if its blasting hip hop and done in a dark room with candlelight, she gushed before meeting Harry. Ill do yoga a couple of times a week.

She was also a fan of Pilates Platinum classes for cardio and strength training, raved about Russell Simmonss Meditation Made Simple app, and followed Hollywood personal trainer Tracy Andersons workout DVD, loved by Gwyneth Paltrow and Kim Kardashian.

Her Frogmore Cottage home has been upgraded to include a wellness sanctuary and yoga studio where she can escape.

But she must miss Californias al fresco lifestyle not to mention the camaraderie and anonymity of working out in a class full of like-minded granola-eating woke souls who would never dare gawp.

Meghan admitted this week that she didnt know what she was in for when marrying into the Royal Family, and friends warned her: You shouldnt do it. She grew up in Hollywood wanting to be a Disney princess, and in later years was a fan of Elizabeth Hurley in TV series The Royals, which hardly prepared her for the reality of life under the strictures of the Palace, where insiders claim she feels personally stultified and emotionally calcified.

She has come from a land of political correctness run amok to marry a man who once dressed up in Nazi uniform for a party, and who exposed the temple of his body at a drunken bash in Las Vegas.

Not that its easy for Harry to understand his wifes psyche. Californians embrace introspection, though rarely do they have any real understanding of themselves. Rather, they enjoy the solipsistic self-exploration that makes them the centre of their universe, with all the intellectual rigour of a Cosmopolitan magazine personality quiz.

Its so important to surround yourself with people who are grounded and really optimistic, Meghan has said.

But there seems little grounding or optimism in Meghans life today. She has complained of Royal life in Britain that she is existing not living, and Harry has spoken of moving overseas, raising speculation that the couple could even resign from the Royal Family.

This is the same Meghan who was so affected by the experience of reading the romantic memoir Eat, Pray, Love, that she took a month off to tour Italy. Now every single moment of her day is planned out for her in advance and contains no room for spontaneity.

Its noteworthy that Meghan recently renewed the trademark for her deleted lifestyle blog, The Tig, sparking speculation that she might relaunch her innermost thoughts on the world once again in what would undoubtedly be seen as yet another breach of Royal protocol. In The Tig she once explained: I write about empowerment and self-identification.

One wonders if she can identify herself these days or spends much of her time California Dreamin.

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Meghan Markle: Stressed Duchess gave up her whole way of life to marry into Royal Family - Express

RUSH: This is Eric in Des Moines, Iowa. Great to have you, Eric. I appreciate your patience. Thank you for waiting.

CALLER: Rush!

RUSH: Yes!

CALLER: I wanted to call and I wanted to thank you because 24 years ago the first time I heard you was right after the Dukakis campaign which I was working for cause that was my mindset. I was a card-carrying liberal Democrat. And when I listened to you, I was angered and shocked, but it was funny. You were so funny. And I couldnt stop listening. And eventually I began to get it. Conservatism, as I understood it, Id never been exposed to any of these ideas of conservatism, individual liberty, until I listened to you. And Ive been wanting to say

RUSH: Now, wait, wait, wait. This is important. How old were you at the time that this was all happening?

CALLER: Twenty-four, 25.

RUSH: At 24, 25, the concept of self-reliance and individualism is something you dont think you had been exposed to?

CALLER: Nope. No way.

RUSH: How is that possible?

CALLER: I grew up in the Northeast, publicly educated.

RUSH: Okay. But if you werent taught that you had to do things yourself, if you werent taught that there was joy in accomplishment, what were you taught?

CALLER: You were taught the collective. That the government should solve the problems. That theres an agency that will solve a problem. That theres a think group that will solve a problem. And its very lonely. And its very frustrating, until you get it, you have the power within. But I didnt know that.

RUSH: That is an eye-opener for me. See, I thought everybody I thought maybe, if youre not taught this, you at least have to realize it. I mean, you get yourself out of bed every day, you get yourself dressed, you maybe get yourself to where you want to go, maybe a school bus is involved. See, this was something front and center for us growing up as breathing was, self-reliance, accomplishing things yourself, that nobody can do it better than you can because nobody cares as much for yourself and you as you do. This is stuff that was part of just the natural growing up and maturation process. And that you never were exposed to it, thats just

CALLER: No. In fact, Rush, when I graduated high school, I really didnt have much going on, and I talked about going into the military. And my mother told me that only people of color and poor people did that.

RUSH: Well, thats what a lot of liberals think of the military, that its a place to go for the hopeless. Its a place for people that dont have any education, dont have any future, dont have much smarts, minorities, its where they go, thats what its for.

CALLER: Thats so terrible.

RUSH: Well, it is. I mean, that I understand. To this day they talk about the military that way.

CALLER: Yeah. Yeah.

RUSH: As a repository for the hopeless. They use people that volunteer to the military as examples of how America is a failure. These peoples only hope, Mr. Limbaugh, is going into the military, its the only way theyre gonna get a fair shake. America sucks. Capitalisms unfair. Thats what the left still teaches today! Well, Eric, I appreciate the call.

Yeah, the Dukakis days were funny. We had more fun hell, he was the one funny, wearing the Beetle Bailey helmet sitting in the tank trying to prove that he wasnt a military wuss. Yeah. Our nickname for him was The Loser. Michael Dukakis. This is the guy in a debate, the old CNN info anchor guy was Bernard Shaw. And he asks a hypothetical question to Dukakis. If your wife was raped, da-da-da-da-da-da, what would you do?

And Dukakis gives a professorial answer about being open and fair to rapists and making sure we dont prejudge em. And even the liberal media couldnt believe that he didnt have one additional ounce of energy answering the question, what would you do if your wife was raped? Then we found out his poor wife was drinking lighter fluid when she couldnt find any scotch in the house, his wifes name was Kitty, and then we said, ah, that was horrible to find that kind of stuff out.

But it made sense, your husband hears that you just got raped and you get into a professorial think tank faculty lounge discussion about the future of rapists and fairness in the criminal justice system. So, you know, the humor was kind of handed to me by the Dukakis campaign. Eric, I really appreciate your honesty there.

Folks, this is what I mean. Im 68 and I still learn things. You might think, Rush, everybody should know this. I just assume that self-reliance, whether you like it or not, you at least are aware of it. How do you get out of bed every day if you dont do it yourself? I mean, even if you live in a welfare state, you sometimes still have to make the transaction. The idea that you can reach age 24 and not learn or be exposed to self-reliance?

Im not talking about rugged individualism. Im simply talking about doing things for yourself. Now, today I understand it because self-reliance is criticized as selfishness, unfairness, because some are better than others. One of the greatest atrocities to happen to American culture is the elimination of competition. And weve been doing that in kindergarten, grade school, high school for 30 years. And the reason that the left wants to breed competition out is because they want to get rid of the notion that there are losers. In competition somebodys gonna lose. Its not fair. Not fair. Everybody wants to be a winner.

So now everybody gets a trophy for participating. And theyre so ill-equipped for life outside the bubble that they become snowflakes and start using things like political correctness to shield them from ever having to really grow up. But self-reliance, I mean, that was taught right along with you dont lie, heres some good manners, you say, Yes, sir. No, sir. Thank you. You take care of yourself. It was just part of it. It was part of the equation. I cant imagine not having that emphasized and spoken about growing up. But apparently it happened to a lot of people. It explains a lot too.

And yet again we have run out of time, and I failed to get to the Trump sound bites. Its okay. Its okay. We still have plenty of time to try to get to the Trump sound bites.

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Former Dukakis Campaign Staffer Converted by Rush - RushLimbaugh.com