Poems of the Week
Spanish is the lovin’ tongue,
Soft as music, light as spray.
‘Twas a girl I learnt it from,
Livin’ down Sonora way.
Category: Free Content
Herodotus Book I, concluded
Herodotus devoted much of the first book to the Persians, their conquest of Lydia, and their subjugation of the Greek cities on the coast of Asia Minor and the offshore islands. He spends a great deal of time on the Ionian Revolt, provoked by Persian expansion, because it is both the predecessor and a major cause of the first Persian War with the mainland Greek cities. The early Greeks, who were not unified either in dialect or ethnicity, were divided into distinct ethnic and dialect groups: The Ionians, who were predominant in Asia Minor, the Aegean islands, the great island...
Take Five: Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
Anyone can quit smoking, but it takes a man to face cancer.” An old saying from the 1960’s.
Poems of the Week: Lunacy
Sad things, as are the reaches of a stream
Flowing beneath a golden moon alone.
Herodotus Book I, Continued: Democracy and Tyranny
By Herodotus’ time, tyranny had developed a bad name, and he his descriptions of their behavior constitutes a pragmatic manual to set beside Machiavelli’s The Prince. Tyrants champion the poor and the weak particularly women and foreigners; they are lustful and prone to adultery and eccentricity—Periander was accused of having relations with his dead wife. They maintain power by disarming the citizenry and oppressing anyone who is distinguished for birth, talent, virtue, or wealth. I know, it sounds exactly like the Democratic Party today.
Take Five: Mercy Without Justice
In postmodern America, Paul Manafort is the “man in the iron mask” while an aspiring serial killer who hangs a toddler gets probation
Thomas Fleming Interviews Ched Rayson
CPR: I began to wonder if this website was a good place to launch the book. It is not the small circulation that disturbed me, but the apparent lack of interest. When I asked for the metrics on my chapters in comparison with other stuff, what you gave me showed a huge gap between pieces authored by you and those that had been written by others. I began to wonder if this site was not simply, you know, some kind of ego trip for an editor who had been bounced from his job. The idea of you getting more attention than me was pretty demoralizing.
Rending the Seamless Garment, II: Killing the Killers
I have heard liberal Catholic priests and Protestant ministers say that there is something “unchristian” about the death penalty. I have even heard those who say that the Church has always been opposed to executions, but I challenge them to cite one passage of Scripture or one creed, one conciliar document, one encyclical that unequivocally condemns the execution of murderers.
Rending the Seamless Garment: Introduction
It is death that makes life so precious. Even Adam and Eve, without knowing it, lived under the shadow of the death that might come to them if they rebelled against their creator, and some protoplasmic earth-blob that were to go on growing throughout eternity would endure an existence without moral significance.
