tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3788490922792691215.comments2021-12-16T07:14:53.239-06:00Scribble BibbleAbecedarius Rexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04389853679255968995noreply@blogger.comBlogger116125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3788490922792691215.post-73500157895556098942014-05-02T19:12:38.197-05:002014-05-02T19:12:38.197-05:00There is a beautiful bust sculpture on your post o...There is a beautiful bust sculpture on your post of Dec 3, 2013, but you didn't label it. Who is she?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13818757204706371467noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3788490922792691215.post-16362232032239664852006-04-02T16:21:00.000-05:002006-04-02T16:21:00.000-05:00As a teacher of a subject which is "entirely ...As a teacher of a subject which is "entirely facts" I can safely say that a student with no regards for interpretations is going to fare badly when it comes down to facts. Sure, history is written by those who win. For those who wonder, so is chemistry. Why did genetics get ignored for fifty years after its initial discovery? Because no one wanted to look at the work of a Catholic monk when they could have more fun arguing about evolution. That's a historical "fact" of course, but there is history to what is known about science, too. Why are we able to do gene therapy? Why because Rosalind Franklin died of cancer and because Cary Mullis was stoned on LSD! Everybody knows that, who knows my field!<br><br>Actually, I think it easier to know the scientific "facts" if you know a bit about the personalities whose interpretations are now "factual." If you know that Count Volta initially used frog legs to make a device which could store electricity, the principles behind the Volt battery stick in your head better once you learn them. <br><br>I say: learn the facts; and learn who TELLS YOU they are the facts. Usually it makes the facts more fun, and reveals what is fact and what is incorrect interpretation. The same goes for history.Dr Urchinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13587583026149362898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3788490922792691215.post-15203475652648286642006-04-03T11:41:00.000-05:002006-04-03T11:41:00.000-05:00That's a fact, Doctor U!That's a fact, Doctor U!Abecedarius Rexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04389853679255968995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3788490922792691215.post-64950126664670193932006-04-03T17:45:00.000-05:002006-04-03T17:45:00.000-05:00No, that's an accurate interpretation. I inte...No, that's an accurate interpretation. I intend to make sure I win this discussion!Dr Urchinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13587583026149362898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3788490922792691215.post-23663988943298739422006-08-10T07:09:00.000-05:002006-08-10T07:09:00.000-05:00The radio talk show host Glenn Beck was reading ex...The radio talk show host Glenn Beck was reading extensively from Lewis on his show yesterday. Lewis' credibility on the Middle East makes his predictions all the more scary. No one could legitimately say that Lewis is on board the "paranoia express train."Dr Urchinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13587583026149362898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3788490922792691215.post-31284239296800700112006-10-23T07:17:00.000-05:002006-10-23T07:17:00.000-05:00Altogether right. Tragedy as the great opportunity...Altogether right. Tragedy as the great opportunity of suffering as the fount of love. The Greeks didnt see love, and thus didnt see tragedy as anything more than a brief glimpse of the world of the gods, a moment of kles, glory. But the Passion showed what tragiedy really is by showing what suffering is. No?Doctor Deaconhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01659569034857938587noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3788490922792691215.post-38140867735850968352006-10-28T09:52:00.000-05:002006-10-28T09:52:00.000-05:00Right on, bro! Men should be men! They should en...Right on, bro! Men should be men! They should enjoy digging in the ground, drinking good beer, shooting rifles, looking at pretty women, and most of all, being the stable, powerful protectors of all that is good and noble. <br><br>I have a class of students right now who are already lost. All of the boys have chosen to walk a life that is perverse. They are so uncontrolled and UNMASCULINE that it inspires nothing but contempt. I hope that I can do some good for them, but they just don't know what it takes to be men. Maybe I can strand them in the forest somewhere and break the legs of one of them, and see if they can figure out what it takes to survive...<br><br>much love, your brother, Dr UrchinDr Urchinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13587583026149362898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3788490922792691215.post-20459869610488153702006-10-28T09:56:00.000-05:002006-10-28T09:56:00.000-05:00I don't know what WILL be. Every time I try t...I don't know what WILL be. Every time I try to look, all I see is the cities burning, for hundreds and hundreds of miles. But I distrust the future. Here in the PRESENT, I know people who fight against the enemy. Not just the Islamic foe, for the enemy is much more widespread than that. Actually, I don't think of it in the image of Troy anymore, but rather in the image of Ragnarok. There, too, did Thor and Odin stand bravely against the tide of the Jotuns and the Muspelheim, knowing that they were doomed to die. Out of that effort, two survived, one man and one woman. And her name was "Life" and his name was "The Will to Live." <br><br>I'll take up my spear next to Odin. I hope others will join me, for after all, I am just a teacher.Dr Urchinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13587583026149362898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3788490922792691215.post-12683001207540076142006-11-14T20:16:00.000-06:002006-11-14T20:16:00.000-06:00Okay... That's darned good. I especially like...Okay... That's darned good. I especially liked the Dantein verse!Dr Urchinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13587583026149362898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3788490922792691215.post-61127078315079739702006-11-16T15:26:00.000-06:002006-11-16T15:26:00.000-06:00George Bush: The very famous and all around good g...George Bush: The very famous and all around good guy, Jakes Sau...sau...Mr. Jakes, walked through the door of the Very Big Gallery. He went for the painting like a mexicano after a tortilla. Grabbing the pretty frame, the "painter stealer" age 76 pulled the very lovely picture with great effort til he fell over like a drunken camel.Erin Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08740860726588697474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3788490922792691215.post-78180247214501878102006-11-16T15:37:00.000-06:002006-11-16T15:37:00.000-06:00Bush: Oh ya, Dont mess with Texas!Bush: Oh ya, Dont mess with Texas!Erin Mariehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08740860726588697474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3788490922792691215.post-59728985445728020372007-07-26T00:08:00.000-05:002007-07-26T00:08:00.000-05:00I'm fine-tuning a Wodehouse version of the fir...I'm fine-tuning a Wodehouse version of the first paragraph as we speak.Captain Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05605878993331611980noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3788490922792691215.post-80054139767904076242007-04-04T01:30:00.000-05:002007-04-04T01:30:00.000-05:00I enjoyed the film. However, I have the same issue...I enjoyed the film. <br><br>However, I have the same issues I did with "Gladiator," and "Braveheart." In the end, I was entertained, and nothing more. Behind all the wonderful cinematography, the heavy-handed speeches about freedom, the invigoration that occurs when a hero dies in the name of whatever the heck the were fighting for (I admit, the ending of Braveheart still gets me, gosh-darn it all), is a film that has no meaning. It has a lot to show, and too little to say.<br><br>What bugs me about these films is the bad guys. They may have been well acted parts ( I especially like Joaquin Pheonix), but there's little to them other than they are evil. Villains are hard to do well. I was thinking about this while watching "Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut" just recently. Zod, like Xerxes and Edward II, is downright nasty. Yet, I think he's a great villain. It just makes sense when he's fighting Superman. Neither of them are human, they're a fictional race, a couple of ideas. <br><br>When Zod says "This Superman is nothing of the sort. I have found his weakness. He actually cares for these Earthlings." the film makes sense. The "Extraordinary Man" trying to figure out why Superman does what he does. A lot of people criticize Superman for being too goody-goody, and I think Zod represents those people, in a way. In the end, I think Zod is a great villain because he brings out the best in Superman.<br><br>Superman II is about more than good versus evil, though. There's the whole tragedy of Superman having to sacrifice what will make him happy for what is right.<br><br>Some of my other favorite movie villains are Doctor Octopus, who is doing the wrong thing for the right reasons, and Ra's al Ghul, who takes on the noble task of cleansing mankind of evil. They are both human beings dedicated to the human race! So was Hitler!Captain Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05605878993331611980noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3788490922792691215.post-20136794277228756362008-03-13T21:35:00.000-05:002008-03-13T21:35:00.000-05:00thx for posting, i appreciate you logic, it's ...thx for posting, i appreciate you logic, it's not very often that i can learn so much from one postCreative Enginehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02397839550090715753noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3788490922792691215.post-80099111106082099392007-06-04T20:51:00.000-05:002007-06-04T20:51:00.000-05:00this from the deacon;This reading of the Arthuriad...this from the deacon;<br><br>This reading of the Arthuriad is right on the mark. The medievals knew what they were doing and used adultery as the type of all human sin. We might use some other sin, as now we try to put Greed up as the type and summation, seee Global Warming. But does not this one, Lust, seventh and final, not sum up the whole list? it is either the most difficult to overcome, as many medievals believed, or the easiest and last to be overcome as Dante portrays it in the Purgatoria. The medievals thought of it as a type of human frailty, what we all suffer from. It is not so much a sin of desire as of domination, getting the unattainable into our power or bed. The lady who holds herself aloof and chaste is the lady who takes the greatest love from her lover and suitor. to give in to him would be to dishonor him, his love, and her selfhood. So the lover is forever complaining, forever empty. Into that emptiness comes the greater love, redemptive love. <br>That characters like Lancelot fail in the effort to keep chaste is their undoing and the poets know that Lancelot and Guinevere are both damned by their act and damning the whole enterprise of the kingdom by it. disloyalty and betrayal comes from concu[piscence as the medievals saw it. Would that our own troubadours in Hollywood could see so far and so clearly. Think of the many visions of political collapse that we have been given -- Apocalyse Now, All the King's Men, The English Patient, Titanic, and others; yet none that have connected their faithless lovers with the downfall of the kingdoms they were given. <br>The Round Table falls both because of the infidelity at its heart and because it attempts what it cannot do, achieve (capture and bring back as a trophy) the Grail. Galahad, Lancelot's son by Elaine and the one pure soul in the kingdom, achieves it by taking it out of human ken into Sarras -- which is both the Middle East, home of the Saracen, and Faery, home of the immortals. Arthur is given Avalon the Final West only after he gives up his sword, as you rightly connect it, the Ring.<br>Bravo on this reading. I hope to see a more complete reading of the cycle some day by Abecedarius.Abecedarius Rexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04389853679255968995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3788490922792691215.post-35453326136099971472007-06-05T11:50:00.000-05:002007-06-05T11:50:00.000-05:00This from AdamS: Sorry I missed the discussion....This from AdamS:<br><br> Sorry I missed the discussion. Very impressed with the bit about hope being a Western concept. I would stress that Le Morte D'Arthur is hopeful precisely because it is tragic ,,, that, in other words, its not just pathetic (i.e., we're not just losers, anymore than the Trojans are simply losers in Homer's little story). The other point of emphasis I would say revolves around the knight as protector of the weak. This was well-articulated. When truth is uncertain, Justice must always align itself with the weaker side; this is a vital connection between the Arthurian and Christian traditions. This, of course, is the very origin of Arthur himself. A nobody--a child--a bastard, esentially, Arthur embodies the very humanity of his origins (i.e., lustful, deceptive, sinful). That he overcomes these origins is his glory; that his son is even a bigger bastard than he is is a reality, just as Galahad--the perfect man--only exists because of the very bestial impulses he is able to transcend. <br> The one issue I would press a bit, however, would be the degree to which Camelot exists to discover the Grail. The grail, remember, is only found after Camelot has essentially been disbanded. Indeed, Arthur advises against its pursuit when Gawain, Lancelot, and company initiate the search. This, it would seem, leads us back to the opening question . . . if not the Grail . . . what is the true purpose of Camelot?Abecedarius Rexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04389853679255968995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3788490922792691215.post-23175189361437222382007-06-18T13:38:00.000-05:002007-06-18T13:38:00.000-05:00Are you perchance reading LOTR? I'm currently...Are you perchance reading LOTR? I'm currently working through the newly published <i>The Children of Hurin</i> edited by Christopher Tolkien. He basically lifted the story of Turin from the <i>Silmarillion</i> and <i>Unfinished Tales</i>, reconcilled the inconsistancies and published it as a freestanding book with illustrations. His goal is to make the story accessable to those who are daunted by the longer books of history.<br><br>I like it, although there are places where I detect some CT re-writes less well penned than the original JRR. So far, though, the goal of the book is succeeding in that I'm reading out loud to my good wife. The slaying of Beleg by Turin, his brother-in-arms, was quite moving to read together.Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10829574522791907940noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3788490922792691215.post-61904401140715967132007-07-24T12:24:00.000-05:002007-07-24T12:24:00.000-05:00I think that there is a strong Transformers/Arthur...I think that there is a strong Transformers/Arthurian connection. I've yet to work it all out, but it's there... waiting.Abecedarius Rexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04389853679255968995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3788490922792691215.post-55542731146304590052007-07-24T23:54:00.000-05:002007-07-24T23:54:00.000-05:00Optimus Prime=ArthurBumblebee=GalahadAllspark=Holy...Optimus Prime=Arthur<br>Bumblebee=Galahad<br>Allspark=Holy Grail<br><br><br>I'm starting to get it!Captain Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05605878993331611980noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3788490922792691215.post-32101887491472915542007-09-25T05:37:00.000-05:002007-09-25T05:37:00.000-05:00Good argument, but how does one explain the soccer...Good argument, but how does one explain the soccer riots in the British Isles? Soccer hooligans are an odd fluke in the otherwise small and, with the exception of a few Irish incidents, peaceful group of neighboring islands (these days, at least). How come Packers and Vikings fans can make indecent comments about the other person's team without resorting to violence, while fans are banned from wearing team colors in pubs in England, for fear that violence may ensue? <br><br>It might have something to do with the expensive beer. Cheapest pint still comes to about four dollars! Great country, don't get me wrong! I just miss cheap beer. PBR, PGB, even Bud...Captain Awesomehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05605878993331611980noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3788490922792691215.post-81609458809627801662007-09-25T09:19:00.000-05:002007-09-25T09:19:00.000-05:00y'know, oddly, the Brits have been notoriously...y'know, oddly, the Brits have been notoriously cantankerous for generations. riots used to break out at Fauxhall gardens or in Cheapside or in Covent on a regular basis. reformers of the 19th century blamed this on alcohol consumption (witness Charles Dickens) which I'm sure had something to do with it, but the English Bulldog may be just more pugnacious than the American Eagle. I like the idea that the Americans are slow to strike but when they do they strike hard. Certainly our riots (like after the Bulls games et alia) are normally due to civil unrest or as a jovial response to good news (like the riots in Watts or the LA riots). Alcohol or temperament the Brits appear to be much more prone to large scale assault than do the Americans; generally speaking of course.Abecedarius Rexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04389853679255968995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3788490922792691215.post-76059428112528031842007-09-28T11:26:00.000-05:002007-09-28T11:26:00.000-05:00You are absolutely RIGHT ON. In fact, it's no...You are absolutely RIGHT ON. In fact, it's not often that anyone hits the bullseye as squarely as you just have. <br><br>People don't often consider that (possibly) the greatest contribution to civilization the Romans ever made was the SEWER SYSTEM, nor the degree to which such a mundane thing makes people love their cities and countries. In the same way, the very mundane invention of a large number of eateries that everyone over a 4500 mile stretch of road can go to and know what will be served there does quite a lot for civil order. <br><br>And where did all the creative energy and imagination to bring society together come from? It came from a few private individuals who did it without the help of the government. I would say that it isn't the government which holds society together. It is the garbage of culture which holds society together, and in turn society keeps governments stable.<br><br>My God, I love this country!DrUrchinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16491152817498353320noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3788490922792691215.post-52397539229148269232007-09-28T11:51:00.000-05:002007-09-28T11:51:00.000-05:00Wait for my blog on mercantilism coming soon to a ...Wait for my blog on mercantilism coming soon to a theater near you.Abecedarius Rexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04389853679255968995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3788490922792691215.post-81529608203850792032007-10-07T09:19:00.000-05:002007-10-07T09:19:00.000-05:00To be fair to Roosevelt, he was concerned that the...To be fair to Roosevelt, he was concerned that there was going to be a communist takeover of this country, and his actions took the teeth out of that movement.<br><br>However, we are still paying the price for what he did. And for what the genuine commies did...DrUrchinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16491152817498353320noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3788490922792691215.post-73902955211633896452007-10-13T23:09:00.000-05:002007-10-13T23:09:00.000-05:00For all the latest commie plots go here:http://www...For all the latest commie plots go here:<br>http://www.thepeoplescube.com/Abecedarius Rexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04389853679255968995noreply@blogger.com