But it can be illuminating for two of us to compare masters. (more…)
From the Glass Bead Game: (more…)
The best fantasy is about what is lost and gone, but surprisingly some of the most moving science fiction is too. (more…)
And, as my mother used to tell me, none of us are going to make it out of this life alive.
Based on my experience, older women are nothing but trouble in dating relationships. Of course, YMMV.
So rules the 9th Circuit Court. Quelle surprise. (more…)
Is a gold digger. (more…)
“Union member fired for attempting to unionize union’s employees.”
A good thing. If this came to pass, there’s no telling where it would end.
Ray Bradbury thinks Kindles are only good for kindling.
And I have to admire someone who called Clinton what Bradbury called Clinton, even if I would not have used language that blunt myself.
I do worry about the pendulum overshooting and hitting me in the face.
From the Anchoress: (more…)
Here is a short theory of the atonement. (more…)
“Civilizations are the summer noise of insects between two winters.” (more…)
On my commute (by car) this morning, I listened to the New Yorker Out Loud podcast, in which Patricia Marx is interviewed about the experience of shopping for a car.
Of course, the idea is that New Yorkers needs to have someone explain to them what buying a car is like. Which they do. Not how to do it, nor how to do it properly, but What is the experience like? It starts with this exchange (approximately) between the interviewer and the author: “Patricia, have you ever bought a car before?” “No.” “Me neither. What’s it like?”
Later, Patricia lets fly a pretty good funnyism. When asked, if she were to actually ever buy a car, which would it be, she says, “I’m kind of won over by the electric cars. I like the idea of not going to a gasoline station and I like the idea of pretending that you’re saving the environment, because the pollution that you’re causing isn’t near you. It’s not coming out of the car. It’s somewhere far away where you can’t see it.”
From The Inheritance of Rome by Chris Wickham, p. 35:
But given the weight of tax, and the endemic injustice that marked the Roman system, it is not surprising that corruption should focus on it. Social critics, more numerous as the empire went Christian and and a radical fringe of moralists gained a voice, very frequently stress fiscal oppression in their invective; only judicial corruption and sexual behaviour were as prominent. This would last as long as the empire.
Something to think about if you were wondering how long certain current conservative concerns, mixed with Christian religion, have been and will be with us.