08 Apr 2006
Ancient Book May Be Covered in Human Skin

This is just bizarre - Friday has it's killer rabbit, now it looks like the Army of Darkness has dropped off their book! What' next - will they discover the tomb of Conan next week?

AP - A 300-year-old book that appears to be bound in human skin has been found in northern England, police said Saturday.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

23:00 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link

Cliche Came Out of its Cage

You said 'The world is going back to Paganism'.
Oh bright Vision! I saw our dynasty in the bar of the House
Spill from their tumblers a libation to the Erinyes,
And Leavis with Lord Russell wreathed in flowers, heralded with flutes,
Leading white bulls to the cathedral of the solemn Muses
To pay where due the glory of their latest theorem.
Hestia's fire in every flat, rekindled, burned before
The Lardergods. Unmarried daughters with obedient hands
Tended it By the hearth the white-armd venerable mother
Domum servabat, lanam faciebat. At the hour
Of sacrifice their brothers came, silent, corrected, grave
Before their elders; on their downy cheeks easily the blush
Arose (it is the mark of freemen's children) as they trooped,
Gleaming with oil, demurely home from the palaestra or the dance.
Walk carefully, do not wake the envy of the happy gods,
Shun Hubris. The middle of the road, the middle sort of men,
Are best. Aidos surpasses gold. Reverence for the aged
Is wholesome as seasonable rain, and for a man to die
Defending the city in battle is a harmonious thing.
Thus with magistral hand the Puritan Sophrosune
Cooled and schooled and tempered our uneasy motions;
Heathendom came again, the circumspection and the holy fears ...
You said it. Did you mean it? Oh inordinate liar, stop.

Or did you mean another kind of heathenry?
Think, then, that under heaven-roof the little disc of the earth,
Fortified Midgard, lies encircled by the ravening Worm.
Over its icy bastions faces of giant and troll
Look in, ready to invade it. The Wolf, admittedly, is bound;
But the bond will break, the Beast run free. The weary gods,
Scarred with old wounds the one-eyed Odin, Tyr who has lost a hand,
Will limp to their stations for the Last defence. Make it your hope
To be counted worthy on that day to stand beside them;
For the end of man is to partake of their defeat and die
His second, final death in good company. The stupid, strong
Unteachable monsters are certain to be victorious at last,
And every man of decent blood is on the losing side.
Take as your model the tall women with yellow hair in plaits
Who walked back into burning houses to die with men,
Or him who as the death spear entered into his vitals
Made critical comments on its workmanship and aim.
Are these the Pagans you spoke of? Know your betters and crouch, dogs;
You that have Vichy water in your veins and worship the event
Your goddess History (whom your fathers called the strumpet Fortune).

-- C S Lewis

whom I thought only wrote Christian apologia until I ran across this gem on Thorolf's Livejournal

23:00 /Asatru | 2 comments | permanent link

Out ot the Woods

with Donar and Blitzen ... the past two days of "goat bloat" have certainly made them the two most miserable goats in Midgard! But they'll survive. The were both up and moving on their own this morning, and both were drinking. Blitzen still has the "screaming GI's" (and trust me, goat diarrhea is nothing short of disgusting), and neither of them are actively pushing on gates or fences, but they'll recover.

Whew!

And a hearty "Thank you!" to the Warder of my Flocks and Herds.

23:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

Are we reliving 1976?

Wow! Positively eerie: I'd forgotten that Donald Rumsfeld was Secretary of Defense in 1976. Truly the more things change, the more they remain the same.

Our Sag Harbor summer softball game held its 30th anniversary dinner the other night in New York City. The entertainment was a good-natured roast featuring jokes about our foibles, mishaps, and legendary incompetence. (Sample slogans: "The game in which you can't possibly be the worst player" and "The most important Long Island softball game launched during the Ford administration.")

(link) [U.S. News & World Report]

23:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

What's wrong with America's high schools?

Curious - I dropped out of Shelbyville Senior High School as a junior in 1973. I had been close to being at the head of the class, academically, but left when I discovered that the administration was going to throw out all of my credits for the past semester, because I had been absent too many days. Never mind that my grades were right up there with the best - they had the rules to enforce, and state law said you showed up or got docked credits.

So I volunteered for the Air Force. had a GED by the end of the year and by the time my class graduated I had two years of college credits via testing, my Air Force training and the local community college...

The real lesson here is that it's not always the student's (or his teachers) "fault" when he drops out. Look to the bureaucracy for some real answers.

An increasing number of researchers are saying that nearly one out of three public high school students won't graduate -- a realization that has administrators taking a hard look at the problem. "Ten years ago," says one high school principal, "if we had a problem student, the plan was, 'OK, let's figure out how to get rid of this kid.' Now we have to get them help."

(link) [CNN.com]

23:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link