Author: Austral-Indonesian Tujuhbelasan

Robbie Robertson’s Greatness And Modern American Madness

The thing I love about the way the late Canadian-born Robbie Robertson played guitar is the way that he could pluck one note out of the universe and let it sit there like an image of God. From Who Do You Love through Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat and This Wheel’s On Fire to one of my personal favourites in Ophelia, the man never wasted a note. And he wrote glorious songs.

Such music is a wonderful medicine for much modern American social malaise (which is a state of robust health compared to some of Trudeau’s Canadian crap).

Robertson himself said about the malaise:

“There’s a thing that has happened in the U.S. where the spirit has been beaten so badly and so you feel no unity in the voice of the country.”

That wasn’t true when Jaime Royal Robertson took us closer to heaven in song.

God Bless Music

Praise The Lord

Geoff Fox, November 4, 2023, Down Under

IWOTA #12 Kathleen Norris

Kathleen Thompson Norris was born in San Francisco in 1880.

Wikipedia states: “She was one of the most widely read and highest paid female writers in the United States for nearly fifty years, from 1911 to 1959.”

For her mastery of English, I name her an Indigenous Woman Of The Anglosphere. (IWOTA)

Here’s why:

“Disconnecting from change does not recapture the past. It loses the future.”

“In spite of the cost of living, it’s still popular.”

“Peace – that was the other name for home.”

“Like faith, marriage is a mystery. The person you’re committed to spending your life with is known and yet unknown, at the same time remarkably intimate and necessarily other. The classic seven-year itch may not be a case of familiarity breeding ennui and contempt, but the shock of having someone you thought you knew all too well suddenly seem a stranger. When that happens, you are compelled to either recommit to the relationship or get the hell out. There are many such times in a marriage.”

“I was taught that I had to ‘master’ subjects. But who can ‘master’ beauty, or peace, or joy?”

“We can’t give our children the future, strive though we may to make it secure. But we can give them the present.”

Kathleen Norris died in her son’s San Francisco home at the age of 85 in 1966.

God Bless America.

Geoff Fox, October 27, 2023, Down Under

IWOTA #10 Joy Davidman

Bronx child prodigy and poet Joy Davidman was born in New York City in 1915 and died in Oxford, England, aged 45, in 1960. Davidman was a convert from communism to Christianity during a troubled marriage, after which she moved to England and found her second and final husband, writer and theologian, C.S. Lewis.

For her great command of words I name her an Indigenous Woman Of The Anglosphere.

She wrote:

“We sucked in atheism with our canned milk.”

“What war did for him (hasten disillusionment with communism), childbirth did for me. I began to notice what neglected, neurotic waifs the children of Communists were and to question the genuineness of the love of mankind that didn’t begin at home.”

Perhaps motherhood taught her of our need for connection:

“See yourself in the mirror, you’re separate from yourself. See the world in the mirror, you’re separate from the world. I don’t want that separation anymore.”

“Being a fool for God was not merely alright but liberating.”

She was a beautiful woman in more ways than one.

God Bless Wives And Mums

Geoff Fox, former Registered Midwife, October 25, 2023, Down Under

Previous Indigenous Women Of The Anglosphere include Shirley Temple, Mary Astor, Audrey Hepburn, Rosa Parks, Mrs Patrick Campbell, Virginia Satir, Lady Gregory and Gertrude Bell

The topmost word art above is based on an image by Pompeo Batoni (25 January 1708 – 4 February 1787).

My Melting Pot #10 Gandhi And A Few Americans

2 days after Gandhi’s birthday, I publish a comparison of his thought and the ideas and practices of a few Americans.

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” (Life long learning requires family friendly education. God bless Ron DeSantis.)

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.“ (cf TR’s favourite proverb: “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”?)

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” (Tuesday November 8th, 2016. President Trump defeated Hillary Clinton.)

“Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.” (“Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t goin’ away.” -Elvis Presley)

“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” (“We can achieve much more in peace than we can ever achieve in these needless, unconstitutional, undeclared wars.” – Ron Paul)

 “Our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world but being able to remake ourselves.” (“Setting a good example is a far better way to spread ideals than through force of arms.” – Ron Paul)

“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” (cf again TR’s favourite proverb: “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”?)

“An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so.” (“One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” – Martin Luther King, Jr)

“The future depends on what you do today.” (“It is no coincidence that the century of total war coincided with the century of central banking.” – Ron Paul)

“Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.” (“The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” – Ronald Reagan)

“My religion is based on truth and non-violence. Truth is my God. Non-violence is the means of realising Him.” (“No one has deputized America to play Wyatt Earp to the world.” – Pat Buchanan)

Geoff Fox, 4th October, 2023, Down Under

WOMEN FOR FREEDOM #43 – Phyllis Schlafly Month #4

I LOVE THE WORDS OF PHYLLIS SCHLAFLY:

“Forcing women in or near land combat will hurt recruiting, not help.”

“A country isn’t sovereign if we can’t control who comes in and who’s allowed to come in.”

“Big Brother is on the march. A plan to subject all children to mental health screening is underway, and the pharmaceuticals are gearing up for bigger sales of psychotropic drugs.”

“I think the main goal of the feminist movement was the status degradation of the full-time homemaker.”

“There’s no real substitute for the care of the real mother.”

“Remember, those that wait upon the Lord will rise up with wings like eagles, and they will run and not be weary. And don’t you ever be weary, because the battle goes on, year after year, and we need all of you young people to join us in the battle.”

GEOFF FOX. 4TH OCTOBER, 2023, Down Under

Melting Pot #9 Ronald Reagan And Phyllis Schlafly And Theresa May

The Anglosphere has some really great thinkers who did good things in the real world for us to compare.

As part of Phyllis Schlafly Month, which I started to celebrate on the September, the 7th anniversary of the conservative thinker’s death, I now compare some of her thoughts with a few of former British Prime Minister, Theresa May, who was born on this day the 1st of October in 1956.

From May:

“You can’t solve a problem as complex as inequality in one legal clause.”

“I get cross about 13 years of Labour government that brought the country to the state it did.”

“I grew up the daughter of a local vicar and the granddaughter of a regimental sergeant major.”

From Schlafly:

“The purpose of our military is to field the finest troops possible to defend our nation and win wars.”

“I don’t think the GOP is going to die; I think Trump is going to revive it.”

“Remember, those that wait upon the Lord will rise up with wings like eagles, and they will run and not be weary. And don’t you ever be weary, because the battle goes on, year after year, and we need all of you young people to join us in the battle.”

Geoff Fox, 1st October, 2023

Women For Freedom #43 Brigitte Bardot

French screen legend, Brigitte Bardot, was born on the 28th of September, 1934, in Paris. She has, in different ways, and for two very different sets of beings, been a great libertarian all her life. I believe her own words prove that:

“I’m a girl from a good family who was very well brought up. One day I turned my back on it all and became a bohemian ……. I have been very happy, very rich, very beautiful, much adulated, very famous and very unhappy …….. (but), have you ever heard of a good marriage growing in front of the cameras?”

“I absolutely loathe luxury. It is the one thing I cannot stand.”

“It is sad to grow old but nice to ripen ………. I gave my beauty and my youth to men. I am going to give my wisdom and experience to animals ……… I left a world in which I was a queen to enter one in which I’m a human being.”

“I am a native Frenchwoman and proud of it ……. (but)I mourn the fact that my beautiful country has deteriorated in every way ……… French courts are backward and politically correct, which is the height of stupidity ……. Only idiots refuse to change their minds ……. In a democracy one must have the right to express oneself and that’s what I do, even if it displeases.”


“Do you have to have a reason for loving? …….. When I love, I do it without counting. I give myself entirely. And each time, it is the grand love of my life …….. My wild and free side unsettled some, and unwedged others ……. They may call me a sinner, but I am at peace with myself.”

Bardot understood the limits of freedom.

“Women get more unhappy the more they try to liberate themselves.”

But she found true love: “My favourite animals are dogs.”

Mans best friend.

And Brigitte Bardot’s.

God Bless Creation And All The Freedoms We Can Still Love.

Geoff Fox, 28th September, 2023, Hollywood Time, written Down Under

Aussie Rules #3 The American Pie And The Son Of The Macedonian Marvel

On this day two years ago I satirically declared Melbourne, Australia’s sporting capitol, dead. I did that because stupid lockdowns deprived Melbourne of the Australian Rules Grand Final in the birthplace of the game. The ridiculous banning and incarceration of Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open tennis tournament last year strengthened that assertion.

But the sheer love of sport in the hearts of the Australian people, especially Melburnians, might offer some consolations.

Aussie Rules football is, in Melbourne, undoubtedly the best game in the world. (We think so.) It is, for many of us, our religion. (For me personally, it is a part of the way God manifests divinity through us, both men and women, as beings made in God’s image.)

I write this post a couple of hours before the count in the Brownlow Medal, the most prestigious individual award in Australian football. In this award, the umpires cast the votes for the fairest and best player. Favourite to win tonight is twenty year old Collingwood player, Nick Daicos, seen below and above celebrating last Friday’s preliminary final victory with the “American Pie”, Mason Cox. (Collingwood are known as the Magpies or the ‘Pies. Cox was recruited in 2014-15 from the United States. In America, Cox was part of a state championship soccer team at high school and played 57 minutes of university basketball for the Oklahoma Cowboys, scoring 7 points.)

Both these men are crucial to Collingwood’s chances this week in Saturday’s upcoming Grand Final.

Daicos is the son of the Macedonian Marvel, Peter Daicos, who revolutionised the way small forwards kicked goals. Nick, at this stage of his career , appears to have achieved more than his legendary dad at the same age.

Mason Cox, at his best, has a fierce determination to win the ball. We call this “attack on the footy”. This manly sporting spirit does his home state of Texas proud. The chant of “U-S-A !!!!! U-S-A !!!!!” often greets his wonderful spirit.

Go Pies !!!!!!!

Geoff Fox, September 25, 2023, Down Under

Phyllis Schlafly Month #2 IWOTA #21

For the brilliance of her thought, I name Phyllis Schlafly an Indigenous Woman Of The Anglosphere (IWOTA).

Here are some examples:

“Any judge who allows an adulterer with a live-in girlfriend to terminate the life of his wife should be impeached.”

“Suppose the pay gap between men and women were magically eliminated. If that happened, simple arithmetic suggests that half of women would be unable to find what they regard as a suitable mate.”

“What I am defending is the real rights of women. A woman should have the right to be in the home as a wife and mother.”

“I think the main goal of the feminist movement was the status degradation of the full-time homemaker. They really wanted to get all women out of the homes and into the workforce. And again and again, they taught that the only fulfilling lifestyle was to be in the workforce reporting to a boss instead of being in the home reporting to a husband.”

“You can’t be an American if you don’t speak English. Our public schools should be mandated to teach all children in English.”

“Anyone with a child knows that children learn about the world through binary options: up or down, hot or cold, big or little, inside or outside, wet or dry, good or bad, boy or girl, man or woman.”

“History offers no evidence for the proposition that the assignment of women to military combat jobs is the way to win wars, improve combat readiness, or promote national security.”

“No country in history ever sent mothers of toddlers off to fight enemy soldiers until the United States did this in the Iraq war.”

God Bless Phyllis Schlafly

Geoff Fox, midwife, 22nd September, 2013

Previous Indigenous Women Of The Anglosphere include Shirley Temple, Patsy Cline, Audrey Hepburn, Rosa Parks, Barbara Stanwyck, Twiggy, Tammy Bruce, Yvonne De Carlo, Mary Astor, Mrs Patrick Campbell, Virginia Satir, Lady Gregory, Joy Davidman and Gertrude Bell