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One COVID to Rule Them All

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I meant to write this post yesterday, but I got distracted on social media ... And, well, I had a paper to read for an exam I am participating in this afternoon. And there was fiddle to practice, although I haven’t always been doing as well with learning the tunes since our class went over to Zoom. I wanted to watch another episode of  Buffy the Vampire Slayer , but I got caught up redesigning the stickers for my Telegram chat ... Somehow the hours just dribbled away, and before I knew it, it was time for bed. I have excuses. Of course I have excuses. I was tired thanks to teaching my Tolkien class . I had spent two days looking for slides of monsters ( spiders, dragons, and   feonds, oh, my! ). It is stressful teaching on Zoom, even with the practice I have had . I wanted to think more carefully about how to set up the argument for this post. I... Dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble. The days since March 21 when Illinois went on lockdown have been dribbling by. T...
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Draco Layer Four: The Anagogic or Mystical Sense

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Here be dragons. And doves. Human beings long for transcendence. Such longing is, for the world, always out of fashion because, of course, it is not a longing for the world, and the world knows it. We know what the world wants. The world—by which we mean Satan, the Lord of the World—wants above all our obedience, a jewel so precious that he will do anything to get it: lie, steal, murder, bear false witness, pretend to social standing, pretend to insider knowledge to get us to consent to his influence.  “God lied to you. You will not die.” And suddenly we are anxious about having other people dislike us, about losing prestige in our social circles, about other people being more popular or influential or successful, about other people having secret knowledge, about our own influence and fame. “You shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” And with that temptation, our first parents fell. The irony is cosmic. There they were in the Garden, privy to conversation with God face-to-face, ...
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Big Bear and the Trinitarians

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It was just supposed to be an interview... A conversation between brothers who have both been on the front lines of the culture war. But then came the quiz... ...with all the answers tending towards one sacred number. At which point the true purpose of the meeting was made clear. “This isn’t an interview.” “This is an intervention.” Milo invites three Catholic intellectuals into a livestream with the Big Bear to talk about the Trinity. Who walks out first?! For wisdom is more active than all active things; and reacheth everywhere, by reason of her purity.  For she is a vapour of the power of God, and a certain pure emmanation of the glory of the Almighty God: and therefore no defiled thing cometh into her. For she is the brightness of eternal light, and the unspotted mirror of God's majesty, and the image of his goodness. —Wisdom of Solomon 7:24-26 And the moral of the story is...? You decide! Preview on YouTube Full episode on Friday Night’s All Right at Censored.TV Unauthor...
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Talking Symbolism with Jonathan Pageau

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Jonathan Pageau is an Orthodox icon carver and friend of Jordan Peterson . Like me, Jonathan is a medievalist interested in reviving the complexity of Christian symbolism. Last week, he invited me to a conversation about my friendship with Milo, what I have learned from Jordan, and what I say in my forthcoming book about Mary. Enjoy! Watch here .
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Talking Points: Three Cheers for White Men

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1. When white women (see Marie de France and Eleanor of Aquitaine) invented chivalry and courtly love , white men agreed that it was better for knights to spend their time protecting women rather than raping them, and even agreed to write songs for them rather than expecting them to want to have sex with them without being forced. 2. When white men who were celibate (see the canon lawyers and theologians of the twelfth century and thereafter) argued that marriage was a sacrament valid only if both the man and the woman consented , white men exerted themselves to become good husbands rather than expecting women to live as their slaves. 3. When white women (see Christine de Pizan, Mary Wollstonecraft, and the suffragettes) invented feminism , white men supported them (see John Stuart Mill) and even went so far as to vote (because only men could vote at the time) to let them vote, not to mention hiring them as workers and supporting their education. And before you start telling me a...
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