Meanwhile in Cloudcuckooland

PRIEST
...to the heroes, the birds, to the sons of heroes, to the porphyrion, the pelican, the spoon-bill, the redbreast, the grouse, the peacock, the horned-owl, the teal, the bittern, the heron, the stormy petrel, the fig-pecker, the titmouse...

Salvaging Republican Halloween

Figure I

A. Fill chilled glass with shaken, cold vodka and vermouth. Garnish with three olives. Empty.


B. Repeat p.r.n until unconscious or until photo below resembles Figure I.

Send in A Thousand Clowns

"...Which was followed by Big Max, Rex, Rover...His Boy Scout membership lists him as Dr. Rafael Sabatini."

“England expects that every man will do his duty!"

21 October 1805
Among the dead was Nelson himself, struck by a bullet from the French ship Redoutable. The decisive English victory ended Napoleon I’s power on the sea and made a French invasion of England impossible. The words signaled by Nelson at the beginning of the battle—“England expects that every man will do his duty”—became immortal. Meanwhile, in the erstwhile Church of England, two centuries later the see of Saint Paul's Parish yields up her dead! God Save the Queen.

Blues and the Abstract Truth

Everyone's talkin' about The Nazz.
What a great cat he was.
How he swung with the glory of love.
How he straighten out the squares.

How he stomp into the money changin' carts
and kicked the short change all over the place
and knockin' the corners off the squares.

How he put it down to the one cat, dug it.
Didn't dig it.
Put it down twice, dug it.
Didn't dig it.
Put it down a third time, dug it.
Boom!
Walked away with his eyes buggin out in the air bumpin' into everybody.

And they're pullin' on The Nazz's coat tail.
They want him to sign the autograph.
They want him to do a gig here, do a gig there,
play the radio, play the video.
He can't make all that jazz!

Like I 'splained to you he's a carpenter kitty, got his own lick.
--Lord Buckley

Number 27: The Larch

Number 76: Die Blaue Engel


Number 86: The Blue Angels


"See what The Boys in the backroom will have/And give them the poison they name!"

"You Are Here"

E tutti li altri che tu vedi qui...

And all the others here whom you can see
were, when alive, the sowers of dissension
and scandal, and for this they now are split.

Behind us here, a devil decks us out
so cruelly, re-placing every one
of this throng underneath the sword edge when

we've made our way around the road of pain,
because our wounds have closed again before
we have returned to meet his blade once more.

But who are you who dawdle on this ridge,
perhaps to slow your going to the verdict
that was pronounced on your self-accusations?

"Death has not reached him yet," my master answered,
"nor is it guilt that summons him to torment;
but that he may gain full experience,

I, who am dead, must guide him here below,
to circle after circle, throughout Hell:
this is as true as that I speak to you."

from Inferno 28.33-48 (Mandlebaum)

What I Learned in the Boy Scout Reserves

The Maize Maze and Mimesis in Johnston County*

Minos called on Daedalus to build the famous Labyrinth in order to imprison the dreaded Minotaur. The Minotaur was a monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man. He was the son of Pasiphae, the wife of Minos, and a bull that Poseidon had sent to Minos as a gift.

Minos was shamed by the birth of this horrible creature and resolved to imprison the Minotaur in the Labyrinth where it fed on humans, which were taken as "tribute" by Minos and sacrificed to the Minotaur in memory of his fallen son Androgenos. Daedalus conceived to escape from the Labyrinth with Icarus from Crete by constructing wings and then flying to safety. He built the wings from feathers and wax, and before the two set off he warned Icarus not to fly too low lest his wings touch the waves and get wet, and not too high lest the sun melt the wax. But the young Icarus, overwhelmed by the thrill of flying, did not heed his father's warning, and flew too close to the sun whereupon the wax in his wings melted and he fell into the sea.

*mimesis, n. Imitation; spec. the representation or imitation of the real world in (a work of) art, literature, etc.OED

On this sunny Sunday, we went willingly into a maze made from maize. Our life in Johnston County is this: embarking on a path that leads through confusion, discovery, fatigue to deliverance. No one entering a maze can claim to be especially 'lost,' since everyone is at equal disadvantage. A maze has, like my time in Johnston County & the life-span of the maize course itself, a beginning and an end.

If one does not enjoy being in a maze, one should not volunteer to go into one.

I know how very good it felt to stop. I heard every note and rest of Wynton's 'Where or When' on the ride home as this beautiful landscape blurred past my window.

The Cavaliers Lose Another One

King Charles' refusal to compromise over complex religious and political situations led to civil war, his own execution and the abolition of the Monarchy.
"Indeed I could hold my peace very well, if I did not think that holding my peace would make some men think that I did submit to the guilt as well as to the punishment. But I think it is my duty to God first and to my country for to clear myself both as an honest man and a good King, and a good Christian."--Charles I, King and martyr, from the scaffold

And of Cromwell?: He thought secracy a virtue, and dissimulation no vice, and simmulation, that is in plain English, a lie, or perfiderousness to be tolerable fault in case of necessity. ~ Richard Baxter in Reliquiae Baxterianae

So Mote It Be.

A Toast, Jedediah...

"To Love on my own terms. The only terms anyone ever knows."

Another Cambria County Cowboy In Africa

Human life may be painted according to two methods. There is the stage method. According to that each character is duly marshalled at first, and ticketed; we know with an immutable certainty that at the right crises each one will reappear and act his part, and, when the curtain falls, all will stand before it bowing. There is a sense of satisfaction in this, and of completeness. But there is another method--the method of the life we all lead. Here nothing can be prophesied. There is a strange coming and going of feet. Men appear, act and re-act upon each other, and pass away. When the crisis comes the man who would fit it does not return. When the curtain falls no one is ready. When the footlights are brightest they are blown out; and what the name of the play is no one knows. If there sits a spectator who knows, he sits so high that the players in the gaslight cannot hear his breathing. Life may be painted according to either method; but the methods are different. The canons of criticism that bear upon the one cut cruelly upon the other.

from Story of An African Farm by Ralph Iron. 1892.

The Will to Code: Nietzsche and the Democratic Impulse

This paper examines the moral claims of free software through the lens of a (re)reading of their theory and practices together with aspects of Nietzsche’s works. It seeks to make a preliminary sketch of how such an analysis might draw attention to oft-neglected aspects of the free software and open source movements. Does an aristocratic moment within the free software (and more generally the free culture) movements point toward a necessary revitalisation of the res publica and should we view this movement as central to the democratic project rather than anathema to it.
To refrain from injury, from violence, from exploitation, and put one’s will on a par with that of others: this may result in a certain rough sense in good conduct among individuals when the necessary conditions are given (namely, the actual similarity of the individuals in amount of force and degree of worth, and their co-relation within one organisation). As soon, however, as one wished to take this principle more generally, and if possible even as the fundamental principle of society, it would immediately disclose what it really is – namely, a Will to the denial of life, a principle of dissolution and decay. Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, §259, by David M. Berry & Lee EvansUniversity of Sussex., Falmer, Brighton. BN1 9RH.

When I Was Just a Boy And Men Were Men

The Elements Awaiting Consecration, for my young pilgrims

Rules and Advices to the Clergy
of the Diocesse of Down and Connor,
For their Deportment in their Personal and Publick Capacities.
Given by Jeremy Taylor,
Bishop of that Diocess, 1672.
I. Personal Duty.
Remember that it is your great Duty, and tied on you by many Obligations, that you be exemplar in your lives, and be Patterns and Presidents to your Flocks: lest it be said unto you, Why takest thou my Law into thy mouth, seeing thou hatest to be reformed thereby? He that lives an idle life may preach with Truth and Reason, or as did the Pharisees; but not as Christ, or as one having Authority.

Every Minister in taking accounts of his life, must judge of his Duty by more strict and severer measures, than he does of his People; and he that ties heavy burthens upon others, ought himself to carry the heaviest end: and many things may be lawful in them, which he must not suffer in himself.

Let every Minister endeavour to be learned in all spiritual wisdom, and skilful in the things of God; for he will ill teach others the way of godliness, perfectly, that is himself a babe and uninstructed. An Ignorant Minister is an head without an eye; and an Evil Minister is salt that hath no savour.

Every Minister, above all things, must be careful that he be not a servant of Passion, whether of Anger or Desire. For he that is not a master of his Passions will always be useless, and quickly will become contemptible and cheap in the eyes of his Parish.

Let no Minister be litigious in any thing; not greedy or covetous; not insisting upon little things, or quarrelling for, or exacting of every minute portion of his dues; but bountiful and easie; remitting of his right, when to do so may be useful to his people, or when the contrary may do mischief, and cause reproach. Be not over-righteous, (saith Solomon) that is, not severe in demanding, or forgoing every thing, though it be indeed his due.

Let not the name of the Church be made a pretence for personal covetousness; by saying, you are willing to remit many things, but you must not wrong the Church: for though it be true, that you are not to do prejudice to succession, yet many things may be forgiven upon just occasions, from which the Church shall receive no incommodity; but be sure that there are but few things which thou art bound to do in thy personal capacity, but the same also, and more, thou art obliged to perform, as thou art a publick person.

You Can't Close The Door When The Walls Cave In!

"Let Frank Griswold go his own way. The hand of God will not prosper him. We can be set free from Pharaoh.Defending the faith by being bold in mission and witness was also the theme presented by Canon Anderson. “The presenting issue is human sexuality. The core issue, though, is basic to Christian belief – the inspiration and authority of the Holy Scripture and the person and work of Jesus Christ. This is ditch I am prepared to die in, to put my family and career at risk for.” He went on: “In ECUSA we are up against a Church determined to eradicate us.” He claimed their tactics were to take a few liberal people, declare they are the true church, and give them a bishop so that they can be designated the true church, he said. The church is in a process of realignment and transition. “We need a win-win situation." from the Midwest Conservative Review

Cold, Like An O'Niall At Crossmaglen

MAIDEN
"Methinks that, of all thy kindled, no friend hast thou living now,
None speaks but to deride thee, none grieves for thy stricken brow;
No hand goes to clasp a comrade's, no eyes to look into thine -
Why tarry in snows of sorrow, when I call to a life divine?"

POET
"Ah my anguish, my wound! We've lost them, the Gael of our true Tyrone,
And the Heir of the Fews, unhonoured, sleeps under the cold gray stone.
Brave branches of Niall Frasach, whose delight were the lays of old,
Whose hearts gave the minstrels welcome, whose hands gave the poets gold".

MAIDEN
"Since at Aughrim all were vanished, and the Boyne - alas my woe!
And fallen the great Milesians and every chieftain low, -
It were better to fairy fortress, to flee, in our love, away,
Than to suffer Clan William's arrows in thy torn heart every day".

POET
"One pledge I shall ask you only, one promise, O Queen divine!
And then I will follow faithful - still follow each step of thine,
Should I die in some far-off country, in our wanderings east and west,
In the fragrant clay of Creggan let my weary heart have rest".
from "Urchill an Chreagain" by Art McCooey

On our first cold day, Caroline Grace wanted to know what the mother bird was on my O'Neill jersey from The Cat and Cage. I have grown fussy about the damp since we grew used to Carolina sun a long time ago. I shivered in this shirt I was first lent (much later given)at the churchyard where the Chieftains are buried. I think about the helicopters and murals I saw in Armagh and about Patrick Kavanagh in Inniskeen. "Between Carrickmacross and Crossmaglen, there are more rogues than honest men." And all the guns are buried by agreement, eh? There are many things buried. Dry bones have, we read, a tendency to rise.

This Pilgrim's Progress, Or Resume Redux

In New Haven, I learned it is not what you know, but what you let on.

In Pittsburgh, I learned the expression 'there are better people than you in Hell.'

In Jeannette, I learned that not all reputations are warranted.

In Coshocton, I learned all life can be divided into three categories: those effecting salvation, the adiaphora, and those that are evil.

In Jerusalem, I left a large piece of my heart at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in order always to know where it is.

In Durham, I learned that Newton was right that bodies in motion stay in motion and bodies at rest stay at rest.

In Ulster and the Republic, I learned that sometimes the best response to ambiguity is the two finger wave and a good,loud melody.

In Smithfield, I learned where there is life there is hope.

In Zimbabwe and Zambia, I learned that God's created order is at all times more wonderful, vast, sorrowful, and joyful than we can imagine. In Botswana, I saw the empyrean and took it inside.

As I go forward, I remember Talleyrand's admonition that in order to thrive one must discern the inevitable and hasten its arrival.

King Billy and Young Eamonn Conquer Sliabh na Caillighe

Jeremiah 1:10 See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.

Níl eagla orm roimh éinne ach Dia amhain
I Fear No One But God

Cairn T, at Loughcrew, nr. Oldcastle, Royal Meath in Ireland is the Tomb of Jeremiah the Bible Prophet who was commissioned by God to tear down; uproot (from Jerusalem) and plant (in Ireland) the daughter (the Tender Twig - Teia Tephi), from the line of David (symbolised in Scripture as the High Cedar), of king Zedekiah, in c. 588 B.C.; the Throne of Israel - the Lia Fail / Bethel Stone and The Ark of The Covenant.
The proof of the fact, that this cairn is the tomb of Jeremiah, is "written in stone" in hieroglyphics, on the stones within the cairn itself.

So how did Jeremiah come to, and end up being buried in Ireland, when he was a native of Anathoth near Jerusalem?

Jeremiah was the Prophet sent by God to king Zedekiah of Jerusalem, who had broken God's Covenant, to warn him to return to keeping The Covenant or God would send king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon to lay siege to and destroy Jerusalem. Zedekiah did not like God's Message and so decided to punish the messenger and put him in prison. However, that did not prevent the prophecy from being fulfilled, it only made its fulfillment more certain. Nebuchadnezzar sent his army and laid siege to The City, whose inhabitants became so hungry that they ate their own children. The City fell and was burned and Solomon's Temple on Mount Moriah - The Holy Place - was also destroyed.

That's Not Writing That's Typing

"The whole mob squealed — Now we can move in for some definitive arrests — Set arrest machinery in operation — Cover all agents and associations with juxtaposition formulae — Put out scanning patterns through coordinate points of the earth for Mrs. & Mrs. D — Top Nova Criminals — Through mind screens of the earth covering coordinate points blocking D out of a hand a mouth a cold sore —
Silver antibiotic handcuffs fitting D virus filters and — Lock — Click — We have made that arrest — You will understand why all concepts of revenge or moral indignation must be excised from a biologic police agent — We are not here to keep this tired old injustice show on the road but to stop it short of Nova."

Gung Ho

While "attacking in a different direction" at the Frozen Chosin Reservoir Dec. 5-10, 1950, Chesty Puller earned his fifth and final Navy Cross. Ten Chinese Divisions had been sent to annihilate them, but the Marines smashed seven of the divisions during their retrograde to the sea. Facing attack from all sides, including two massive enemy attacks on the rear guard, Puller’s direct leadership ensured all casualties were evacuated, all salvageable equipment was brought out, and ensured there was enough time for the column to reach its destination.

My Michaelmas Finals

As the exceeding glorious festivities of Michael are renewed, all the joyous structure of the world is thereby beautified, the nine distinct hosts of pneumati (spirits) made by Thee. But, as Thou wilt, Thou makest them flames of fire as Thou dost the radiantly-shining stars. For these Thy created beings are the primaeval ones, whereas we are the last to be made, albeit in Thine image... The Angelic lower order and Archangelic battle-troops, the host of Principalities, the high-heavenly Virtue, and sweet-singing Power, the godly dominion-wielding spirits and Thrones divine, ethereal Cherubim and fiery Seraphim. ... To that place our King is leading the hundredth sheep, the tenth drachma, us begotten by the Word. ... Let us pray ... that ... our incense may be acceptable to God round the altar of gold, so that we, then in celestial glory, may chant together: alleluya.

...Ou, L'Optimisme. Ch. VI, Un Bel auto-da-fe

CANDIDE...on vint lier après le dîner le docteur
Pangloss et son disciple Candide, l'un pour avoir parlé, et
l'autre pour l'avoir écouté avec un air d'approbation: tous deux
furent menés séparément dans des appartements d'une extrême
fraîcheur, dans lesquels on n'était jamais incommodé du soleil:
huit jours après ils furent tous deux revêtus d'un san-benito, et
on orna leurs têtes de mitres de papier: la mitre et le
san-benito de Candide étaient peints de flammes renversées, et de
diables qui n'avaient ni queues ni griffes; mais les diables de
Pangloss portaient griffes et queues, et les flammes étaient
droites.


Ils marchèrent en procession ainsi vêtus, et
entendirent un sermon très pathétique, suivi d'une belle musique
en faux-bourdon.

"I'm Sure The Spread Was Five, Slick"

"Geneticists and sociologists especially go out of their way to prove, with an impressive apparatus of scientific data and formulations that all men are naturally equal and if some are more equal that others, this is attributable to nurture and not to nature.

I take an exception to this general view. It is my firm conviction, supported by years of observation and experimentation, that men are not equal, that some are stupid and others are not, and that the difference is determined by nature and not by cultural forces or factors. One is stupid in the same way one is red-haired; one belongs to the stupid set as one belongs to a blood group. A stupid man is born a stupid man by an act of Providence. "--Carlo M. Cipolla, Professor of Economics, UC Berkeley