The prodigal blogger returns.

Hello, remember me? The bloke who put up his alleged final posting (header reading, Ave atque vale) only a few months ago. Obviously, it was not to be. It turns out your Tatler missed not having a facility in which to vent spleen, even if no one read it. It’s having the outlet that matters. The rest, mere statistics.

One more note: to those few readers who checked in every now and then, even after this blogger’s alleged quitting, bless you and much obliged.

Salve,

Bickerstaff

Ave atque vale

To my readers,

I am sad to report this will be the last post for the indefinite future. The blog has never had a large number of readers, but their numbers were high enough to provide motivation to keep posting. Unfortunately, lately the numbers have dropped to near or actual zero, so it seems pointless to continue writing posts when my time would be more profitably spent practicing the organ.

I will not delete any posts and the blog will remain on WordPress should I ever choose to resume posting.  Grateful thanks to those readers who stuck with the Taos Tatler. May God bless you all.

They’d best do it if they want to survive.

A refreshing change from the mealy-mouthed utterances of our current president. From the New York Post:

President-elect Donald Trump warned Monday there will be “all hell to pay [in the Middle East if Hamas does not release every one of the remaining hostages in Gaza before his inauguration next month.

Also, from another source, the New York Sun: “The president-elect threatens to ‘hit’ those responsible ‘harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America.’

A prediction: should Hamas inexplicably show some sense and release the hostages before Trump is sworn in, President Biden will claim credit for it, and his trained monkeys in the media will back him up. No mention will be made of Trump’s very believable threat.

Looking Glass logic

Presidential Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on the President’s pardon of his convicted felon son.

No. Read the president’s statement. Seriously, read the president’s statement. He said he believes in the Department of Justice. He does. He says it in his statement. He also believes that war politics infected the process and it led to a miscarriage of justice.

From Louis Carol’s Through the Looking Glass and what Alice Found there:

Alice laughed: “There’s no use trying,” she said; “one can’t believe impossible things.” “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Much similarity to Ms Jean-Pierre, though the Queen is far more likeable, albeit fictional, than the Presidential Secretary.

IF . . .

Steve Bannon: Maga can rule for 50 years and Farage will be PM

Excerpt, but read the whole thing.

Louise Callaghan in the (London) Sunday Times

If they manage this, Bannon tells me more than once, the Maga Republicans can rule for half a century. “If we deliver now, it’s upon us. They’ve given President Trump that. If he delivers on the economics of this … we’re going to govern for 50 years. It’s all there for us to lose.”

IF. IF.

“Take Courage”

Well worth reading, from The Catholic Thing.

An excerpt:

I was about to begin my doctrinal studies at King’s College, and it was dark when I arrived at our Capuchin friary in the borough of Peckham in southeast London.  When I was shown my room, I immediately looked out the window to see my view over the next three years.  Across the way, was a pub.  Blazing above its door, in big red neon letters, was the phrase: “Take Courage.”