Omaha Beach / The Children Who Were Chosen
Two Poems
Mostly Aesthetics
Philosophy, the arts, and poetry
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“Hide not your face from me”
Bertrand Russell was once asked how he would justify his atheism, if he found himself before the pearly gates.
What makes sad music sad?
On Appearance Emotionalism
Paradise Regained Read Blind
Jesus fasted forty days in the desert, and was tempted by Satan. Paradise Regained is John Milton’s re-telling of those temptations, with expansions and inventions.
Moral Monsters
However evil you believe the Nazis were, the reality was worse.
Shakespeare / Anarchy / Revolution
Is your work is underappreciated? Are you throwing pearls before swine? Take heart!
“Prepare the new world an asylum for mankind”
In early 1776, Common Sense went viral in the colonies, turning heads and tipping the scales toward independence.
Love of Country, II: America the beautiful
What is the American aesthetic? The question sounds like the setup for a joke. It must be as brash as a billboard advertisement, as saccharine as a 64-ounce Big Gulp of Coke Cola.
Love of Country, I
Patriotism gets some side-eye from many, and—in elite clubs and back-room meetings—patriotic Americans get more. But patriotism can be defended, and is given a worthy defense, in Spencer Case’s soon-to-appear book Why It’s OK to be Patriotic.
Lives of the Eminent Philosophers: Thales
To the promotions committee, this is my evaluation of Thales’ case for tenure.