Daily Archives: November 15, 2009

Wilfred Owen’s “Futility”

One of Wilfred Owen’s great poems is titled “Futility” (1918). It begins with a commander of men at war directing a couple of his soldiers to move into the sun the body of a recently dead comrade: Move him into … Continue reading

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Mental Health Break

Karen Carpenter on the BBC, September 21, 1971:

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If the Israelis Could Publicly Try Adolf Eichmann in 1961, Why Can’t the United States Publicly Try Khalid Sheikh Mohammad in 2009?

Yesterday Salon’s Glenn Greenwald succinctly countered the American Right’s fear-stoking with regard to trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammad in New York: People in capitals all over the world have hosted trials of high-level terrorist suspects using their normal justice system.  They … Continue reading

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PZ Myers Finally Rises into Bryan Appleyard’s Radar

And Appleyard skewers him, returning rhetorical fire with rhetorical fire: I note also the appearance of this character P.Z.Myers. I’ve never read him before but I now discover he once did me over – ‘How stupid are the editors and … Continue reading

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Evolution Debated

An interesting William F. Buckley organized debate, refereed by Michael Kinsley, on evolution and intelligent design:  

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The Higher Self and the Lower Self: Theseus and the Minotaur

An 1843 sculpture, by Antoine-Louis Barye, of Theseus slaying the Minotaur: Theseus’s entering the center of the Labyrinth at Knossos and slaying the Minotaur has sometimes been associated with Apollonian order and culture overcoming the bestial elements of body and psyche. And in … Continue reading

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