Monday, September 25, 2023
Something to think on …
To live anywhere in the world today and be against equality because of race or color is like living in Alaska and being against snow.
— William Faulkner, born on this date in 1897
Sunday, September 24, 2023
Appreciation …
… The Story Behind the Historian. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Then there was the question of whether the last word hadn’t already been said about it 200 years earlier—the word of Edward Gibbon, the very title of whose imperishable History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776) suggested that late antiquity, which saw the rise of Christianity and the fall of Rome, was an altogether downward proposition. For Brown something close to the reverse of this was the case. When he came to write The World of Late Antiquity (1971), casting aside Gibbon’s scornful view of the age, he set out to show that "late antiquity marked not the end of civilization but its transformation into new and adventurous forms, which would directly influence all subsequent centuries."
Something to think on …
To be kind is more important than to be right. Many times, what people need is not a brilliant mind that speaks but a special heart that listens.
— F. Scott Fitzgerald, born on this date in 1896
Saturday, September 23, 2023
Choosing between thr World and Faery …
… The Weight of Enchantment - by Michael Warren Davis. (Hat tip, Dave Lull..)
Blogging note …
I just got word that my wife’s brother passed away. I have broken the news to her. Blogging will not resume until this afternoon.
Something to think on …
What did the earth teach the trees?How to speak to the sky.
— Pablo Neruda, who died on this date in in 1973
Friday, September 22, 2023
Thursday, September 21, 2023
As Whitman said ….
… “ Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)” —
Democrat Gubernatorial Candidate Slams Private Planes and Then Flies in One
This is really worrisome …
… The Attacks Just Keep Coming.
Just ask the J6 protesters who peacefully walked through the Capitol. The feds are still hunting them down and arresting them. And ask the Catholic father who was arrested in a heavily armed FBI raid on his home for the crime of trying to save unborn lives. And ask the father who demanded to know why no action was taken at the school where his daughter was raped why he was treated like a terrorist.
Methinks the FBI may have outlived its usefulness. By the way, guys, I have journalist credentials. Bear that in mind (presuming you have such).
A dissenting voice …
… Radical Wolfe: An Underwhelming Account of the Revolutionary Journalist. (At tip, Dave Lull.)
Something to think on …
If there is no God, nothing matters. If there is a God, nothing else matters.
— H. G. Wells, born on this date in 1866
And the winner is …
… Astronomy Photographer of the Year: Huge plasma arc wins - BBC News. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden,)
Wednesday, September 20, 2023
I’ll be joining …
… so should you:St. Therese Novena - Pray More Novenas - Novena Prayers & Catholic Devotion.
I’m very attached to the Little Flowerr. Her authobiigraphy, The Story of a Soul is a masterwork.
Something to think on …
An hour's conversation on literature between two ardent minds with a common devotion to a neglected poet is a miraculous road to intimacy.
— Charles Williams, born on this date in 1886
Tuesday, September 19, 2023
No lie there …
… It's normal for parents to object to graphic sex in kids' books.
Via Nellie Bowles on The Free Press, who adds: "If you can't read the sexy kids' book in Congress without grossing people out and having them tell you to please stop, Dad, maybe children shouldn’t read it."
Begging to differ …
… Finally incoherent? | Helen Vendler on Dickinson’s Poem 243. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I kept asking myself: Pier? Granite? Bell? Face of Steel? A nail or drill? Where might all these things be found? On a 19th century locomotive passing through Concord! That’s where. (And Concord was a railroad town.)
Hmm …
… Squires: CNN thinks black conservatives who don’t support abortion and ‘Pride’ are race traitors.
Planned Parenthood may now be an abortion factory, but that is not what its founder Margaret Sanger intended. Here is what she had to say on the matter:
When you ask me the question "How can I bring myself around; I am pregnant two months," you are asking for abortion. Please understand that Birth Control, as I understand it, is never abortion. I do not approve of abortion, nor can I give the address of anyone who will perform this operation... The object of this movement is to help women avoid abortion and the dangers attending it.You can read more here.
Something to think on …
My yesterdays walk with me. They keep step, they are gray faces that peer over my shoulder
— William Golding, born on this date in 1911
Monday, September 18, 2023
Ouch …
… I’ve Been Thinking by Daniel C Dennett review: a masterclass in vanity. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… perhaps the most wince-inducing moment was his meeting with “a charming and beautiful young philosopher” in Prague. “I later learned that Roger Scruton . . . was extremely irritated by the fact that on his next visit to Prague, all she could talk about was Dan Dennett! A small ignoble pleasure for me.”
Something to think on …
Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.
— Samuel Johnson, born on this date in 1709
Sunday, September 17, 2023
Just so you know …
… Consensus Doesn't Equal Science | Newsmax.com.
“Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled … “Let’s be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science, consensus is irrelevant. … The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus. There is no such thing as consensus science. If it’s consensus, it isn’t science. If it’s science, it isn’t consensus. Period.”
Q&A …
… Paris Review - The Art of Theater No. 14.
In 1968, during the Black Power movement, when black Americans were, as one sociologist put it, “seeking ways to alter their relationship to the society and the shared expectations of themselves as a community of people.” As a twenty-three-year-old poet concerned about the world and struggling to find a place in it, I felt it a duty and an honor to participate in that search. With my good friend Rob Penny, I founded the Black Horizons Theater in Pittsburgh with the idea of using the theater to politicize the community or, as we said in those days, to raise the consciousness of the people.
Something to think on …
The need for mystery is greater than the need for an answer.
— Ken Kesey, born on this date in 1935
Saturday, September 16, 2023
Something to think on …
Language is by its very nature a communal thing; that is, it expresses never the exact thing but a compromise - that which is common to you, me, and everybody.
— T. E. Hulme, born on this date in 1884
Read and listen …
… Discussing the New Tom Wolfe Documentary: 10 Blocks podacst | City Journal. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Friday, September 15, 2023
These people really are crazy …
… Expert sparks fury after claiming that references to darkness in Macbeth are attempts to reinforce ideas of white supremacy | Daily Mail Online
Why woukd that have been on Shakespesre’s mind?
Something to think on …
Defining and analyzing humor is a pastime of humorless people.
— Robert Benchley, born on this date in 1889
The creative imagination …
… In the Personal Library of Vladimir Nabokov Are Clues to the Esoteric Obsessions of the Supreme Esthete. | Observer. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… perhaps the single most thrilling object in the collection, one of the single most thrilling graven images I’ve encountered, the one book in the collection that most seemed to speak from beyond the grave and the graven realms, was a unique Nabokov book, one he created himself by hand, one never before seen by the world, and one that I believe discloses an important secret about his esoteric passion.
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