The Fleming Foundation Cultural Commentary

5

Χρίστος Ανέστη

This great Easter hymn was composed by Venantius Fortunatus, an Italian who lived roughly from 530 to  600 or some time thereafter. Born in Venezia, near Treviso, he was educated in the then still-civilized Ravenna some time after Justinian’s reconquest of Italy.  He made his way to the Frankish court in Metz, where he established himself as court poet.  

38

Hell is Modernist Catholic Theologians

If the Vatican cared one way or another—or respected the intelligence of the hundreds of millions of Catholics around the world—they would have to fish or cut bait.  Either confirm Scalfari’s obviously accurate account and call for silence and obedience until the Pope makes an ex-cathedra denial of the Church’s teaching or deny it and call Scalfari a liar

4

15 Results from the Iraq War Started 15 Years Ago

Here are 15 results from the Iraq War, which President George W. Bush launched 15 years ago: 1. As a veteran – Cold War generation – I sometimes use the VA Hospital in Long Beach. Every time I go there, I see a young man suffering injuries from the war, such as blown-off limbs. Once I saw a young guy, about 25, who was a paraplegic in a wheel chair. No doubt others I see suffer from PTSD. 2. The war showed America was a “paper tiger,” as the ChiComs used to say. Its military, which Neocons in the 1990s...

6

The Inconvenience of Truth

In its original Latin use, inconvenient, meaning not accordant or unsuitable, was—as far as I know—innocent of sinister implication; but in the six hundred years since its importation into English via French, it has tended to take on the coloring of a euphemism.  Although the Oxford Dictionary shows no awareness of the fact, in the days of Elizabeth I, if her Lord Treasurer William Cecil began to think that someone’s presence or behavior was inconvenient, then it was probably time for that person to start thinking seriously about putting his property in trust, and planning a trip overseas. In contemporary...