Fantasy Historical Revisionism - Loconte's Manipulation of Middle-Earth, Narnia, and the New Testament

For some time I've received recommendations of Joseph Loconte's 'The War for Middle-Earth: JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis Confront the Gathering Storm, 1933-1945'. I was dubious, and so when I was recently in a Barnes and Noble and saw the book, I picked it up and spent some time perusing it. It was what I had feared, a Right-wing attempt to hijack these authors and appropriate them to contemporary political struggle. It immediately reminded my of the kind of skewed historical work produced by Eric Metaxas, most famously with his Bonhoeffer biography which despite being discredited, continues to sell.

Growing Militarism and Fears of World War

https://www.politico.eu/article/world-war-iii-defense-spending-europe-poll/

Politico is well known as a pro-Atlanticist publication and thus is going to represent a NATO-bias in its reporting. Despite this shortcoming, there's still some good information to be gleaned from time to time.

In this case, the article is neither profound nor surprising but rather affirming what many already sense - the world is heading toward global conflict. Indeed, history may look back and reckon the next world war as having begun in the early 2020's with the conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, and now Iran. These wars are becoming ever more related and interconnected and as Donald Trump discovered they are not easily disentangled or disengaged from as so many issues are woven together.

Whitewashing US Aggression in Cuba and Venezuela

https://thegrayzone.substack.com/p/deprivation-and-depopulation-inside

We can hope that Trump's failures and frustrations in connection with Iran might lead him to back off his militarist rhetoric regarding Cuba. But if anything he's likely to strike the island as a means of distraction - just as Iran helped steer the conversation away from his connections to the Epstein scandal. That is until his wife (in an attempt to protect her supposedly 'good name') rekindled the fire.

The Deranged and Violent Fantasies of Today's Evangelical Leaders

https://www.wearegreenbay.com/news/national/ap-at-pentagon-christian-service-hegseth-prays-for-violence-against-those-who-deserve-no-mercy/

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/cpac-republicans-close-ranks-behind-trump-iran-war-2026-03-26/

https://consortiumnews.com/2026/03/05/hegseth-brags-of-mass-killing-in-iran/

The Hegseth prayer has received quite a bit of press coverage but unfortunately the media interactions I have encountered are from Liberal/Modernist Theologian-types that are incapable of providing a robust Biblical rejection of his theology.

NPR, JP Morgan Chase, and Establishment Media

The Right would have us believe that the Liberals are out to destroy the United States and reduce its might and wealth. This is patently ridiculous - as I have argued on many occasions. The Left (so-called) is just as invested in the Empire as the Right is. The leaders of the DNC and the so-called Liberal Media are all avid capitalists and support the US Empire, its projects and its wars.

However they do like to have it all packaged with a nice humanitarian and legally justified veneer - even if it's all rubbish. They attach interpretive narratives as to how it all works so that it can appear legal, humane, and enlightened. In some respects I find myself despising them all the more for their hypocrisy - though there's plenty to go around.

I was reminded of this listening to NPR's Steve Inskeep interview Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan. It was quite chummy with Inskeep employing his trademark over the top laugh. He was hardly an impartial or watchdog reporter let alone an adversarial one.

Zambia in the Crosshairs

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-admin-threatens-withhold-hiv-192256406.html

The US acts as if its AIDS treatment and prevention programmes are rooted in altruism. That's never been the case. These were opportunities for the Empire to exercise soft power, make contacts, lay foundations for future business investment, and establish relationships with political leaders. It's always been about the fact that if the US doesn't do this, then some other powerful nation will.

Almost Evangelicals: The Plymouth Brethren

https://deovicimundum.wordpress.com/2026/03/12/the-gospel-and-sacraments-a-visit-to-a-plymouth-brethren-assembly/

Immanuel offers some astute comments and helpful analysis with regard to the Brethren, their doctrines, ecclesiology, and soteriology. As I said to him, I am always torn by these groups. On the one hand there's so much that I appreciate about them or want to, and yet at the same time there are some glaring errors that seem to end up characterizing and dominating them, and one's experience among them.

Russell Vought, Pete Hegseth, and Redefining Witness

https://wng.org/opinions/clean-words-and-clean-witness-in-the-white-house-1764033683

There are so many astonishing articles being written these days - it's impossible to keep up.

This World Magazine article from back in November 2025 continues to amaze me.