Latest Blog Posts for I, Ciceronianus; causidicus

• The Incredibly Credulous
  on Dec 15, 2016 in Facebook Fake News Technology
  We're being told--by the purveyors of news--that we're imperiled by "Fake News."  Fake News is, it appears, something which purports to be actual news, but is not.  It seems it lurks everywhere, but tends to appear and be reproduced especia...
• Stoicism, God and Some Consequences of Belief
  on Dec 5, 2016 in Epictetus God Religion Seneca Stoicism
  The immanent God of the universe which is characteristic of Stoicism would seem to be necessarily different from the anthropomorphic God or gods one finds in most religions of the West. Some contend that two, at least, of the later Stoics--Epictetus...
• Poe's Imp
  on Sep 2, 2016 in Edgar Allan Poe Longfellow Stoicism
  Edgar Poe (it seems he disliked being called "Edgar Allan Poe") wrote a short story with the interesting title The Imp of the Perverse.  The narrator is a murderer who seemingly commits a murder for which he cannot be suspected, but is compelled...
• Of "Trigger Warnings" and "Safe Spaces"
  on Aug 25, 2016 in Education Heidegger Safe Spaces Stoicism Trigger Warnings University of Chicago
  The University of Chicago has made the news because it has sent to incoming freshman a letter (how quaint!) notifying them that it doesn't favor so-called "trigger warnings" and "safe spaces."  I've heard these phrases before, and have seen them...
• Tolstoy and Sanctimony
  on Aug 19, 2016 in Donald Bartheleme George Orwell Tolstoy
  Donald Bartheleme wrote a most amusing story titled At the Tolstoy Museum. It begins with the sentence "At the Tolstoy Museum we sat and wept."  The museum is said to display thousands of pictures of Tolstoy.  In the story, museum...
• The Other Man of Steel
  on Aug 9, 2016 in B.H. Liddell-Hart Goethe Hitler Napoleon Politics Soviet Union Stalin Trotsky
  "Stalin" was a name chosen in the days before the so-called October Revolution; so-called as it actually took place in November according to the modern calendar subsequently adopted.  It means "steel", as all or most now know.  I suppose th...
• Lex Lavacrum
  on Aug 3, 2016 in Cicero Law Religion
  Lex Lavacrum is my best effort to translate into Latin the words "Bathroom Law" or perhaps more appropriately "The Law of the Bathroom."  What seems silly in English acquires a certain majesty when translated into Latin, however loosel...
• The Kingdom of Fear
  on Jul 29, 2016 in Fear Franklin Roosevelt Guns Hunter S. Thompson Politics Rod Serling Warren Zevon
  The late Hunter S. Thompson described our Great Republic as "The Kingdom of Fear" in the title of a book he wrote, and also in a song he co-wrote with the equally late Warren Zevon which appeared in his fatefully titled album My Ride's Here.  Mo...
• Homage to Stephen Crane
  on Jul 25, 2016 in Anton Chekov Bierce Emerson Hemingway Henry James Mark Twain Oscar Wilde Stephen Crane Thoreau
  He was 28 when he died, at a health spa in the Black Forest of Germany.  What had we achieved by that age, reader?  For my part, very little.  Perhaps you achieved more, or much.  But it's his age at death that makes him most rema...
• How Not to Do Things with Words: "Black Lives Matter"
  on Jul 13, 2016 in Black Lives Matter Donald Trump Giuliani Police Politics
  The title to this post is a little play on the title of a work of the philosopher J.L. Austin called How to Do Things with Words.  What prompts me to write it are the antics of the unfortunate Mr. Trump, the maudlin Mr. Beck, and the increasingl...

{pvComments::user_name}

{pvComments::date}

Delete 

{pvComments::comment}

Post a Comment