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An idiot
Over the past week or so, I was thinking about the Revelation of St John the Divine and the phrase, "King of Kings", wondering whether Cyrus II The Great, first king of the Achaemenid Empire, bore that title. The Achaemenids had been on the periphery of my interests for some time in an unrelated context and, when Cyrus was mentioned, this question ( Read more... ) -
The hypothesis that would not die
The Kurgan enthusiasts are on the march again, emboldened this time by a couple of new papers out this past February. The claims were amusing and frustrating by turns. Both papers suffer from something of a straw-man fallacy, since few, if any, still defend an early, "Out of Anatolia", origin for Proto-Indo-European ( Read more... ) -
Casino Royale
Finally got round to watching this one. I think Daniel Craig is probably the most plausible James Bond yet and, with apologies to Sir Sean, may even be my favourite ( Read more... ) -
Phenomenally stupid
THE BBC IS BUSY embarrassing themselves again. One would think that they might tire of the taste of Republican, especially after eight years of lovingly tonguing Dick and W, but apparently not. Then again, I imagine they taste much like Tories, so maybe they have simply grown to like it.
Not once does this hack mention that Sarah Palin is not a ( Read more... ) -
"Like slavery and veils and genital mutilation"
VIA MATT TAIBBI, Tim Kreider on royals:
“It seems to me like monarchy is one of those things, like slavery and veils and genital mutilation and car chases in movies, that we ought to be well rid of by now. Didn't we fight a revolution so we wouldn't have to give a shit about these costumed inbred morons anymore? Come to think of it, didn't Oliver ( Read more... ) -
Sunny days with Bruno
THE PAST COUPLE OF DAYS have been uncharacteristically mild, so much so that I dragged an old chair out back and spent several hours reading in the afternoon sun.
The book was, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, by Frances Yates, an in-depth, scholarly treatment I first attempted about twenty years ago and never finished. I was ( Read more... ) -
The Hadrianic Conspiracy
LAST WEEK, poliphilo led me into a tar pit, one from which I have yet to fully extricate myself. The act was innocent of any malice of course, and done with the best and sincerest intent I am sure, but History Hunters International is a tar pit nevertheless.
The author of the new material appearing on those pages is one John ( Read more... ) -
Election Day, 2010
THE IMPACT OF TUESDAY'S ELECTIONS on progressives and Obama is exaggerated by the news media. Anyone that pays attention to US election cycles should know that midterms are often a rebuke to the party in power. The economic gloom and suffering in this country today, itself the child of Republican intransigence and stupidity, made a harsh rebuke to ( Read more... ) -
(Untitled)
The books of boiled-mutton “philosophy” in the manner of Dr Orison Swett Marden and Dr Frank Craneand the occasional pot-boilers for the newspapers and magazines ( Read more... )