Politics

Rape: A Short History

Homer, The Iliad, Book I, ll 26-32.

Never let me find you again, old sir, near our hollow
Ships, neither lingering now nor coming again hereafter,
For fear your staff and the god’s ribbons help you no longer.
The girl I will not give back; sooner will old age come upon her
In my own house, in Argos, far from her own land, going
Up and down by the loom and being in my bed as my companion.

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Better Together

Well, it's been a hell of a week. Scotland very nearly decided to go it alone. I just learned today that a possible outcome of that might have been a decision by particular bits of Scotland to take a leaf from that book and apply to rejoin the U.K. under a flag of their own. No telling where that would have stopped. Next thing you know, the fever would spread to Wales, Northern Ireland (we need to revisit that?) - or even Cornwall, Northumberland, the South Downs. FREEDOM! Read more about Better Together

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10 Questions

An old friend of mine who currently espouses what I will call, in a temporary fit of generosity, libertarianism, posted this recently on Facebook. They are illustrative of what I call "extrapolated argument" - the kind of argument used most often by teenagers, e.g., when told they can't use the car tonight because it's snowing. "So what if you and Mom are sick and you need to be taken to the emergency room, does that mean I can't use the car to drive you there? What then, huh? Huh?" Read more about 10 Questions

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Falling Into the Well

This week, a guest appearance from my Facebook friend, Scott Wilson, who also tries to illuminate the realities behind the rhetoric:

Take it away, Scott:

Combined with the austerity approach to the terrible economic mess we still seem to be in and the asinine legislation popping up at state levels, the recent increased vocals from inconvenienced, poor, put upon billionaires trend is really beginning to annoy me.....

A lil story.... Read more about Falling Into the Well

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