Author: Thomas Fleming

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The Next “Book”: Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes, Part I Introduction

Aeschylus was known for the magnificence of his style and the power of his productions.  His language is always challenging in Greek and difficult to render into English.  Because of his power and occasional obscurity, he might be compared with Shakespeare, and in magnificence, I sometimes think of Richard Wagner as one of his better imitators, albeit a much shallower writer.

10

Your COVID Papers, Please!

People are justifiably worried that the government is going to impose a COVID passport as a requirement for travel and for maskless participation in public events. Of course it is going to happen for some good reasons and for far more bad. The only question is how to deal with the government.

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Down With Seuss!

Ted Geisel/Dr. Seuss ia finding what he would have wrongly supposed to be unlikely “conservative” allies, who either defend him on the grounds that the enemy of my enemies is my friend–what we might call the Stalin Complex–

4

Today’s Question, Number 1: Is Joe Biden a Racist?

A few days ago the President of the United States derided several governors as “neanderthals” because they decided to relax the restrictions on social life that had been imposed in a panic-response to COVID.  What has he got against that  extinct race of human beings? Neanderthal men, so far as I have been able to gather over the years, were a crude lot but capable of speech and, from the guesses I have read, endowed with an IQ range in the 70’s and 80’s.  Since they interbred with members of Homo sapiens, it may be unfair to refer to them...

8

Deep Thought For the Day

At breakfast here on Sullivan’s Island, my wife commented: “I guess we missed to really big events last night. The Golden Globe Awards and Trump’s CPAC speech.” I feel just awful about it

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With Fire and Sword, IV: The Political Dimension

Sienkiewicz has set  his narrative in the most troubled period of Polish history. This is not one of the historical subjects I know at all well and will content myself with a brief comment that will probably do as much to distort as to clarify the context. From today’s perspective, Poles frequently comment on the tragedy of their nation, caught between two ruthless imperial peoples, German and Russian.  One might add, that the Swedes to the North were also a threat.  That is a valid way of looking at the situation, but there is another:  Poland was in a good...