The Fleming Foundation Cultural Commentary
The end of the Ajax is a rhetorical battle over the corpse of Ajax, and, though it is a war of words, it is no less serious than the Homeric conflicts over the battle and armour of a fallen hero. The basic antagonists are three: Teucer, the two Atridae (who make much the same argument, though Agamemnon is more reasonable, perhaps because he is dealing with Odysseus), and Odysseus. Rather than summarize the scene, I’d like to leave it up to the readers to give their response to the following questions: First, what is the nub of each set of...
Like the word’s Italian variant, coprifuoco, “curfew”–which is now in effect in several European countries–comes from Old French cuevrefeu, “cover fire,” advice to citizens to extinguish fires at a certain hour of the evening. My wife thinks it’s sweet. “It shows concern,” she says. “Just compare it to what we say in Russian.” In Russian the equivalent is “commandant’s hour,” meaning do what you’re told or be brought before the commandant and get the regulation nine grams of lead in the back of your head. Language gives nations away.
If BidenHarris make it into the White House, we’ll see the full restoration of the MIC: the Military Industrial Complex, as Ike called it. The latest appointment is Gen. Lloyd Austin, who aced out the expected pick, Michele Flournoy. Not surprisingly, the Woke Media are turning this into an “intersectional” battle: If confirmed, Austin would become the first black SecDef, while Flourney would have been the first woman to hold the post. But both are tied into the MIC
“Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star…” So said the Southern secessionists of the 1860s. Even with whatever differences the leaders of the CSA were certainly a much more culturally intact group than we are presented with today, even I dare say within our own state governments.
Thanksgiving and Christmas are the one time of the year we are supposed to get together with our extended family. These days, family dinners have become a gesture of defiance.
But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by. Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name’s sake. Luke 21 ...
Karl Keating, the wise founder of Catholic Answers, has put up a post saying it is time for Trump supporters to wise up, take their medicine, and acknowledge Biden as “my President.” His argument, as one would expect from such a man, makes good sense. Of course the Democrats cheated, just as the Republicans cheated. Both sides always cheat, and they have rigged the system to be a strictly two-party system in which the two gangs of scoundrels will take turns grabbing the boodle. I am not happy with the outcome, but if the Democrats are better at playing the...
The west was getting out of gold,
The breath of air had died of cold,
When shoeing home across the white,
I thought I saw a bird alight.
I am compiling a list of seasonal poems. Prof. Brownlow has made a wonderful suggestion of Robert Southwell. We can also do some poems about Winter.
The Chorus, who have been obtuse throughout the play, have misunderstood Ajax’s parting words as a change of heart instead of a rueful admission that he misjudged the world he has lived in. The drama becomes more intense, when a messenger comes in to report on Teucer’s hostile reception in the Greek camp, and on the instructions he had received from Calchas the prophet NOT to let Ajax out of his hut.
