Do you really need historical context to understand or Macbeth?

Understand enough of the Classical underpinnings and Catholic allusions to purgatorial ghosts as well as the rhetorical tropes and schemes isn't a trivial exercise, which is why Jacques Barzun -- to cite but one example -- thought teaching Shakespeare's plays to high school students was largely a waste of time. He believed it much better to pick only one, do it well, and teach it in the final year of high school (I quote from memory but I think it was Teacher in America).

And Elizabeth Vandiver in her Great Courses series mentions that much of the difficulty high school students experience in Shakespeare are because of their unfamiliarity with classics (Plutarch in particular, of course) rather than the Elizabethan english and rhetorical tropes and schemes.

Retired Dartmouth legend Peter Saccio's Shakespeare's English Kings is the pinnacle of such efforts, of course.

I studied it in high school and I can see nothing has changed. The high school English curriculum these days is not exactly known for rigor or innovation -- a twofer.

I follow the thought of David Hicks in Norms & Nobility -- the four year curriculum should have an integrated humanities program that consists of Literature & History coordinated as to time period each year.

So, no Jane Austen unless you're simultaneously studying British History in your history classes. Which means 20th century literature is reserved for only the very finest works and those that rise high enough to merit a historical epoch.

I'd rather they study Arthur Miller Death of a Salesman

He's just trying to upstage the head of the Marines saying that the primary mission of the Marine Corps is to keep the Commander in Chief out of rain's way. I suppose the Joint Chiefs is an umbrella organization.

A related point which bears repeating is something I first remember reading in Aquinas and I've heard confirmed by priests who work with unrepentant, serious sinners (murderers, serial adulterers, career criminals): Sin has a dulling effect on the intellect, like soot accumulating on a white fence post over time, until you can't tell it is a fence post. Or put in more earthy terms:

"Sin makes you stupid."

Sure, but what is the reward/penalty for a moral/immoral act? In an increasingly secular world, what is the mechanism to behave correctly in this situation? A fear of getting caught? Perhaps ,after all, he is behaving in a way that doesn't inherently "feel wrong" to him (speculating, of course). Are we to rely on an undefined, internal empathy that we assume is naturally there for all?

The reason we don't fear being murdered in broad daylight by every person we pass by in downtown New York is a vestige of natural virtues existing in our fellow citizens. Those natural virtues don't exist in aspic, and as the culture degrades so will the average, typical or natural behavior of the ordinary citizen.

My related concern is the porn epidemic I hear about from military chaplains - Catholic as well as Protestant - that shows no sign of slowing down in either the Canadian or United States military.

"Swanson/Crane 2016: Shrimp Wrapped in Bacon, Wrapped in Shrimp, Wrapped in Bacon."

"Swanson/Crane 2016: The only pork we endorse is the kind we kill and eat. Especially if its from Canada. Mmmmmm, back bacon."

Speaking of nipples; its my pleasure to announce that Ron Swanson is now an Old Testament prophet for his illustrations of the government in action:

Take it away, Ron.

Subtitle: Its Ron Swanson's world now; we just live in it.

In the first episodes, Jack Bauer will be undergoing a grueling interrogation by the IRS about his 501 c(4) corporation that has him screaming:

"I can't remember where I left the mileage logs for my SUV!"

Every one in this present US administration, from Jay Carney all the way up to the President, regardless of skin color or education, remind me of the boys who lost every school yard fight they were ever in, including the ones against the girls.

Drone strikes are just the bloated taxpayer funded version of remote, radio controlled airplanes for innumerate, reprobate faux executives who have nothing better to do than evade responsibility for every major decision in their lives and stick the engineers with all the heavy lifting like in the BP offshore disaster.

The only global warming threat left on planet earth is the hot air evinced by this administration in their puerile attempt to demonize every one who doesn't indulge their adolescent mewings for payback time.

#UmbrellaBoyFailureToLaunch

1)  It seems a bit of a leap to blame the video just because it "aired on Egyptian TV in the days before the event" without knowing more context on the broadcast.  That is, did the broadcast claim the video was American or what?

What language did it air in and what language was spoken by the residents around Benghazi? would be the first question I would ask with a large cigar clenched between my teeth as I played J. Jonah Jameson grilling Peter Parker about his first hair brained story at the Daily Bugle.

You know I don't mind that this post got 2 comments and crickets. But that headline and photo? I worked hard on this Mr. Long; real hard.

oral recusals

There's something Clintonesque about that phrase. 

Sign outside the IRS as the FBI and Justice Department enter with warrants:

"Billions served."

Russian Kettlebells.

Now in new Count Chocula and Frankenberry.