The schedule for next month’s Alabama Philosophical Society meeting in Pensacola is now online.
I’ll be talking about this.
Tag Archives | Antiquity
De Spectaculis
In a debate with George Smith over the merits of pagan Rome versus the Christian period that followed, Ralph Raico writes: “Men openly carried amulets of the male genitals around their necks and touched them often, for luck.”
Thank goodness that dreadful practice was replaced with amulets of a half naked man being tortured to death.
He’s not the Vicar of Christ, he’s a very naugthy boy!
It would have been nice if the ‘cleansing’ had targeted only the perpetrators, and not also the victims, of Roman oppression.
Ralph further writes: “The major Christian denominations were also oppressors, with the notable and noble exception of the Baptists ….”
As a resident of North Carolina for eight years and of Alabama for fifteen, I have the sad duty to report that the Baptists have managed to find their way into the oppression business.
Greek Coffee
The AU Philosophy Club’s series of caffeine-fueled public fora continues tonight at 5:00 in a new venue: Mama Mocha’s new second location in the Hound restaurant, located here. The panel (including your humble correspondent) will discuss the topic “Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.” Drop by if you’re in the area!
Richard Nixon’s Keen Grasp of History and Culture
Nixon: God damn it, I do not think that you glorify on public television homosexuality. The reason you don’t glorify it John anymore than you glorify, uh, uh, uh, whores. Now we all know people who have whores and we all know that people are just, uh, do that, we all have weaknesses and so forth and so on, but God damn it, what do you think that does to kids? What do you think that does to 11 and 12 year old boys when they see that? …
I don’t want to see this country go that way. You know there are countries – You ever see what happened, you know what happened to the Greeks. Homosexuality destroyed them. Sure, Aristotle was a homo, we all know that, so was Socrates.
Ehrlichman: He never had the influence that television had.
Nixon: Do you know what happened to the Romes, Romans? The last six Roman emperors were fags. The last six. Nero had a public wedding to a boy. Yeah. … You know what happened to the Popes? It’s all right that, po-po-Popes were laying the nuns, that’s been going on for years, centuries, but, when the popes, when the Catholic Church went to hell, in, I don’t know, three or four centuries ago, it was homosexual. And finally it had to be cleaned out. Now, that’s what’s happened to Britain, it happened earlier to France. And let’s look at the strong societies. The Russians. God damn it, they root them out, they don’t let them around at all. You know what I mean? I don’t know what they do with them. … Dope? Do you think the Russians allow dope? Hell no. … You see, homosexuality, dope, immorality in general: These are the enemies of strong societies. That’s why the Communists and the left-wingers are pushing the stuff, they’re trying to destroy us. …
Now, this is one thing I want. I want a Goddamn strong statement on marijuana. Can I get that out of this sonofabitching, uh, Domestic Council? … I mean one on marijuana that just tears the ass out of them. I see another thing in the news summary this morning about it. You know it’s a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish. What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob, what is the matter with them? …
More here.
Tales of the Mighty Dead
This coming week I’ll be lecturing on “Mises vs. Friedman on Economic Method” (old lecture) and “Neglected Pioneers of Free-Market Thought” (new lecture) at Mises University; then the week after that I’ll be lecturing on “Bastiat and French Liberalism,” “Anarchism in 19th-Century Europe,” and “Anarchism in 19th-Century America” (all new lectures) at IHS’s “Revolutionaries, Reformers, and Radicals: Liberty Emerges” seminar at Bryn Mawr.
Amokmindedness Elsewhere, Part 4
The Amok Mind blog has been updated with The Man Trap.