Jerks 00.D: What happened to manners?
Jerks come in every imaginable age, size, sex, and type, but they all share one common quality: They have absolutely no manners,
Author: Thomas Fleming
A Common Place for Common Places: Vergil on the Media
From Aeneid Book Four, where Fama–Rumor–spreads truth and lies about Dido’s dalliance with Aeneas.
The Autodidact on Aristotle
The one figure who defines modern thought is Aristotle, not of course because modern thinkers have followed him, but because since Galileo and Descartes and Bacon, scientists and philosophers have defined themselves by their opposition to Aristotle
Taking Responsibility for Crime
Willie Smith III was executed today in Alabama for the brutal and capricious murder of a woman he had kidnapped from an ATM. The usual critics of the death penalty have not been silent in their opposition to Smith’s execution.
Poems: Walter De La Mare
In honor of the upcoming celebration of the Eve of All Saints, I offer these eery poems by Walter De La Mare.
Utopias Unlimited, Part II
In turning the conventional on its head, Gilbert was able to see into the paradoxes that lay just beneath the surface of Victorian morality.
A Letter from Alabama: The Legacy of Colin Powell by the Alabaman
Former U.S. Secretary of State, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin Powell has died, according to reports in the media, from “Covid complications.” Since General Powell had received all the government coerced shots, skeptics may be wondering how this could have happened! The mainstream media legacy of Colin Powell does not entirely match up with the historical record.
Utopias Unlimited, Part I
This essay on the ethics of W.S. Gilbert has been revised and considerably expanded.
Gilbert and Sullivan, Part I: A Brief and Informal Guide
There are many studies, commentaries, and guidebooks to the world of Sir W.S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan. I have read or consulted several them over the years, and I will provide a little bibliography as this series—undertaken in response to requests—but I disclaim any specialized knowledge that is not in the hands or in the heads of perhaps tens of thousands of people who have read, watched, and listened to their work for many years.
Resisting Evil, V: The Fundamental Things of Life
Instead of plunging headlong into the tedious history of self-defense legislation, let us rather begin (as Plato or John Locke might) by imagining a state of society in which there is no legitimate authority or, at least, no legal power to protect the innocent or punish the guilty. We do not have to dig into the ethnographic accounts of such violent peoples as the Ifugao of the Philippines or the Yanamano of South America. The Celtic, Slavic, and Germanic peoples of Europe provide a rich record of violent periods in which self-help and vengeance were a normal means of protection...
