Monthly Archives: February 2007

Emily Dickinson’s Humanism? Or Is That Making This Too Complicated? On Poem 464, "The power to be true to You"

The power to be true to You… (464) Emily Dickinson The power to be true to You, Until upon my face The Judgment push his Picture – Presumptuous of Your Place – Of This — Could Man deprive Me – Himself — the Heaven excel – Whose invitation — Yours reduced Until it showed too

This is one of those things that I should have brought to your attention earlier…

…I don’t agree entirely with Mr. Lanier, but his fundamental sentiment – The beauty of the Internet is that it connects people. The value is in the other people. If we start to believe that the Internet itself is an entity that has something to say, we’re devaluing those people and making ourselves into idiots.

Thinking Blogger Awards

Gracchi gave me the “Thinking Blogger Award” and wrote an awful lot of nice stuff about this blog and others blogs he likes here. Now this meme originated at this post, and quite honestly, I wish the originator of the meme had given me more criteria to work with, for I’m not sure exactly what

Joy, Pain, Character and Hedonism

Some people often try to discuss the joy they feel at a given moment in terms of their previous pains, and it almost always strikes me as corny. I used to think that the problem was my being cynical. Then I caught myself attempting to express joy after a period of pain, and thought myself

A Note On How Conservatives Use Resources

This article in Dissent Magazine asserts that conservative foundations are far more generous and interested in their interns than liberal ones. This article from Slate from a while ago talks about how conservative foundations might not be part of a “vast right-wing conspiracy” simply because the money to go around is so meager. I want

Hoping Some Outrage and Change Might Occur via Sharing This Link

All you need to know.If you’re really interested, here’s something more.Do we really have to give Egypt a dime? They abuse the Coptic minority, Islamism of the worst sort seems to be getting stronger there all the time, and the thing about free speech is that while I don’t want to sit and be like

A Note or Two on Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound, lines 18-27

O child, with towering thoughts, of right-counseling Themis, You, unfree, I unwillingly nail to this place, Fixed far from man, In order that neither the voice nor the form of man You shall see. But, scorched by the radiant flame of the sun, The flower of your skin you will exchange; To please you well

The Public, the Private, and the Internet

This feature from New York magazine is excellent, and certainly worth a brief comment. It asserts there is a generational gap caused by young people using the Internet to disclose incredibly personal detail and find others through such openness. The generational gap is so severe, it is as if there is no such thing as

The Theologian Post-Machiavelli: Shakespeare on Love and Lust in Sonnet 129

Sonnet 129: “The expense of spirit in a waste of shame…” Shakespeare The expense of spirit in a waste of shame Is lust in action; and till action, lust Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame, Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust, Enjoy’d no sooner but despised straight, Past reason hunted, and no sooner

A Review of Frost’s Scribblings Becomes An Excuse for Reflection

Everything below is really speculative, and subject to change. I just wanted to try and get at what could be so “terrifying” about Frost. Oh, this is from a while back, on Sophocles. This is just amazing, amazing stuff. I wish I could write like this. From the article above: “The difference between expense and