Poems: Jessica Powers
Jessica Powers was born less than three hours from our house, in Mauston, Wisconsin, in 1905. In 1941 she entered a Carmelite convent in Pewaukee, where she received the name Sister Miriam of the Holy Spirit.
The Fleming Foundation Cultural Commentary
Stupidity in High Places
Speaker Pelosi is reported as saying that the folks who got into the Capitol building the other day want to destroy “democracy” and substitute “whiteness.” On the face of it this is a lie, since the protestors were not advocating anything particularly white but asking for redress for an election stolen by people mostly white.
The Succession, Conclusion
What is most astonishing in Garrett’s narrative technique is his generosity to the narrators. While most novelists write from a single point of view, whether their own or that of a fictional character or of liberal philosophy’s impartial spectator, Garrett allows his people to speak for themselves and to justify their (often miserable and sometimes worthless) lives.
The Succession, and The Historical Consciousness of George Garrett, Part One of Two
This was published originally (if I recall correctly) in an issue of The Texas Review. George Garret, knowing how highly my wife and I regarded The Succession, asked me to write the piece, perhaps because he had trouble finding anyone else.
Picking the Next Book
It’s time to move on to another book discussion. Here are some possibilities.
Aeschylus, The Seven Against Thebes.
Xenophon’s Oeconomicus, which deals with household and family management.
Several of Tennyson’s Arthurian Idyls….
Wednesday’s Child: Precedent Trump
Doubtless the gentle reader appreciates that in two hundred or more posts published in this space during the term of the outgoing administration I hardly ever mentioned President Trump. Instead I sat on my hands, which kept me from biting my nails, and watched the spectacle unfold. Yet kicking a man when he’s down is hardly comme il faut…
Our Rulers–What Now?
Successful capitalists are men whose main focus is on making money. Now and then, a few may be tempered by some religious, patriotic, or cultural consideration. That is not true of the global capitalists who are the de facto rulers of the people of the United States.
Recent Craziness Still Ignores Foreign Policy Insanity
America’s Rancid Ruling Elite keep showing themselves a gang of fools who might get us all nuked. Consider the events of the past week, over the election, the protests and the demands for impeaching Trump – again. Does anyone consider the foreign policy implications of it all, especially with Russia?
The Lord’s Prayer
This podcast initiates a series in which Dr. Fleming, with Rex Scott and Jim Easton, grapple with the literal meaning of every word in the prayer we are given as the model by Jesus Christ. This first podcast introduces the topic and sketches out the methods we shall be using.
Good Bye to Facebook and All That
I have decided, more or less, to abandon Facebook. I told my virtual friends I’d give it a month of one-way silence, and I intend to do that, but social media are a terrible distraction. I’d rather read my stack of old Braccio di Ferro comic books. It is not just that most FB posts are stupid–they are–or ill-informed–even more so–but the invitation to people to admire their own ill-considered thoughts, to stare into the mirror they have created and admire their own imperfect complexions.
