(For all those not in the know, the Medieval Academy of America is meeting this weekend in New Haven. Happily, the dogs don't seem too worried about how far away it is.)
I was down there from Thursday afternoon through today, working at the Beinecke and visiting a college friend, and I was wondering why there were several people with black tote bags labeled "Speculum" on them. Now I know!
I have had a fair amount of fall-out thanks to the video that I did with my friends about Vox Day’s book on Jordan Peterson . If you have watched the video, you know that I agree with Milo and Vox in their critique of the Good Professor. Like Milo and Vox, I do not see Jordan as on “our” side . Quite the reverse. I became wary of Professor Peterson about this time last year, after spending over a month trying to make sense of what happened in his interview with Cathy Newman. I became increasingly suspicious as I watched his interactions with Ben Shapiro and Dave Rubin on their shows , and I lost all faith in him as an ally when he threw Milo under the bus rather than argue with Bari Weiss about whether Milo was “possibly [a racist].” By the time Professor Peterson made his Kavanaugh tweet, the camel was already on the ground, crippled and unable to rise. I do not think Professor Peterson believes in God by any definition that I would recognize . ( Hint : If you care more a...
Me, writing political commentary?! Stranger things have happened, like, for instance, having a candidate for president who is intelligent and articulate and able to put issues before what the other candidate's campaign is saying about him personally. So, I watched the debate Wednesday night with increasing hope and concern: is it possible that America might go so far as to elect a president who, while rich*, was also at the top of his class in school? Or are we going to fall yet again for the dumbing down of our politics to the level of personal grievance and feelings? It all hinges on Joe the Plumber. But who is he? I don't mean in real life; everyone knows that now . Even on Wednesday, Senator McCain didn't really care about who "Joe" was or his staff would have bothered to find out, for example, that "Joe's" full name is Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher and that he isn't even licensed by the Association of Plumbers, Steamfitters and Service M...
You care . You mean well . You are passionate . You believe in taking action , particularly when it comes to children. You believe in community , particularly at the global level. You celebrate diversity , but abhor exclusionary categories . If something is wrong in the world, you expect the government to do something about it. You abhor war , but celebrate dissent , even if (or when) it is expressed through violence . You believe that education should be relevant to society and issue in action . Just trying to get a few things clear in my head...
It’s been a busy month! The Dragons have completed writing four of the five Quests in our “Centrism Game” (a.k.a. “ Dunciad 2020 ”). I have been reading in preparation for future videos with OBS and EMJ . And I have been recording new episodes of “ The Forge of Tolkien ” each week. If that isn’t enough gravy (hi, Bears!), have I got some tasty biscuits for you! 1. The Wisdom and Folly of King Solomon and Joe Long Poet and raconteur Joe Long joined me to talk about Wisdom and Folly: A Book of Devotional Doggerel (Covenant Books, 2020). Wisdom and Folly is a book of Scripture-inspired light verse meant to instruct and amuse. These sixty poems draw upon Old Testament verses to reflect upon our contemporary scene. They may make you chuckle, groan, or sigh, but they’ll also make you think. We chuckled! We groaned! We sighed! And in the process we had a great conversation about the importance of poetry for training the soul to shun Folly and pursue Wisdom. 2. T...
"You are broken." (Not just humanly fallible, but flawed, damaged in a way that others are not.) "You are dangerous. One day you may even kill somebody." (Said to me, age 8 or 9, when I was fighting a bully.) "You are wrong to defend yourself, even when you are attacked." (See above.) "If you cannot do x or y now, it is because you have no talent for it. Don't even try." (My father's rule in life.) "You are impatient--and stubborn--because of where you were born." (Meant as an affectionate joke, but heard as an accusation: "You can't change. You're just the same as when you were two.") "It's amazing anybody would want to marry [you]." (Said by my father to one of his friends; reported to me at his funeral, albeit in disbelief.) "You're not brilliant, you just work hard." (Said by one of my classmates in college after I got a higher grade on a paper than he did....
I was down there from Thursday afternoon through today, working at the Beinecke and visiting a college friend, and I was wondering why there were several people with black tote bags labeled "Speculum" on them. Now I know!
ReplyDeleteThat was us! Pesky medievalists, they get everywhere, don't they?
ReplyDelete