The Promised War

A pretty good thriller, though the end does stumble a bit. An Israei special-ops soldier while on a dangerous mission is transported back in time to ancient Jericho, where he joins the Israelite invasion of Canaan. Or is it all a hoax? Hmm... You'll have to read it to find out.

Beautiful

Yesterday was a very rough and disappointing day. Forgive me if this seems rather like a jilted lover playing sad love songs over and over again, but I actually find this song to be a bit of a pickmeup. Sappy perhaps, but it's a good reminder of that a bad day doesn't mean you're a complete failure. Rough day but life goes on and as cliche as may sound now, it does get better. God bless.

UPDATE: I'm okay. After an arduous and lengthy application process I didn't get the "dream job" yesterday that I had been hoping to get. It was like a big kick in the gut after spending so much time over so many months prepping. Even so, I'm regrouping and am going to give 'em hell next year when I reapply.

Edward VIII: The Traitor King

I don't know how I missed this documentary back in 1995, but I just recently came across it. I had heard about Edward VIII's pro-Nazi sympathies before but never to this extent. Conspiring with the enemy to subvert the British government in time of war? Possibly giving military information to the enemy? Wow. If these and other charges made against the ex-king are true than he was indeed a disgraceful traitor, as despicable as Benedict Arnold was. That this documentary was produced by Channel 4, a publicly-owned station in the Britain, only adds to the astonishing nature of this film.

This documentary can be found entirely online at YouTube, which the above is just the first part of. You can find the remaining 10 parts by clicking here.

The End of the World

Part 2; Part 3; Part 4.

I happened to stumble across these videos which are apparently the final part of Terry Jone's Barbarians series. I must say that I am very pleased to see Jones again, having thoroughly loved his work on Monty Python, and was surprised to see that he has become something of a popular historian on British TV as he has done more than just this series here. I now have a few more videos saved to watch later with Jones.

As for this particular series, while the videos in this post are from the final part they can stand alone from what I can tell and are still quite enjoyable. Jones does a good job in speaking to his audience and telling a version of the history of the Huns and Vandals that may be unfamiliar to many. While I didn't find his revisionist history about Attila to be all that convincing, he did make some very good points about Genseric and the Vandals. Their sack of Rome in 455 while not bloodless doesn't appear to have been as horrible as popular history claims, they just did a better job of extracting the city's valuables than did others. Genseric also had an interesting claim causus belli in that the treaty he had signed with Emperor Valentinian III which betrothed their children was nullified when he was overthrown and murdered. Eudocia, daughter of the murdered Valentinian III and betrothed to Genseric's son, appealed to the Vandals for rescue from the usurper. This puts the 455 sack into different perspective once these facts are known in my view. Anyways, this part was enjoyable and I recommend watching them. I'm going to slowly watch the other parts and complete the series as soon as I can. Enjoy!

iPod Random Song List Game

This is a game of sorts that now defunct blogs I used to follow years ago started and I would join in from time to time. I rather liked it mainly because I have very eclectic tastes in music and I still find it interesting to see what crazy lists are generated.

Rules: Set your iPod on shuffle and post the first 10 songs that appear. No cheating!

1. "Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)" - Chris Tomlin
2. "Romantic" - Karen White
3. "Under Pressure" - Queen & David Bowie
4. "Heart's On Fire" - John Cafferty
5. "After 12" - Force M.D.'s
6. "Human" - The Human League
7. "Dreams" - The Cranberries
8. "Am I The Only One" - Marc Anthony
9. "Live And Let Die" - Guns N' Roses
10. "Fly Like An Eagle" - The Steve Miller Band

Aeschylus' The Persians

This was the first of the ancient Greek plays reviewed by Professor Meineck in his lecture that I previosuly blogged about. It has the unique distinction of being the earliest surviving play we have from anywhere in the world. Aeschylus wrote this play about a real historical event: the Battle of Salamis, which he was a veteran of and during which the Persian army was soundly defeated. The play seems to me to have 3 themes which played off of each other: the folly of exceeding mortal limits, which the Persians did in attempting "to throw slavery's yoke firm on the Greeks"; the courage and resoluteness of the "Sons of Greece" to "fight for all [they] have!"; the tragedy of war as far as loss of human life, which in this battle meant that "Persia's flower is gone, cut down".

Although I am far from being anything near a classicist, I did find much to enjoy about this particular play. It could be that it was based on a real historical event and I enjoy history a lot, although how it was told in the play is nothing like what would be acceptable as "real history" by modern scholars. Parts of it were boring and dragged on, this is a very different and long-dead culture one must remember so some of the context is lost to me. This particular translation certainly helped as some of the prose seemed to be charged with emotion that brought the events to life in my mind. Here's an example, with a messenger sorrofully telling the news of the near-total loss of the Persian invasion fleet:

Then the Greek ships, seizing their chance,
swept in circling and struck and overturned
our hulls,
and saltwater vanished before our eyes -
shipwrecks filled it, and drifting corpses.

Shores and reefs filled up with our dead
and every able ship under Persia's command
broke order,
scrambling to escape.

We might have been tuna or netted fish,
for they kept on, spearing and gutting us
with splintered oars and bits of wreckage,
while moaning and screams drowned out
the sea noise till
Night's black face closed it all in.
(Lines 682-697)

I'm not usually one who enjoys poetry much, but the raw emotion conveyed in these words was palpable. It rather surprised me when I read this to have such a reaction. I felt like I could actually see the wrecked hulks of the Persian ships with the bodies of their dead floating in the sea, at least as if I was watching a movie about the battle instead of just reading a play. And it continued, for look at what happened to the island garrison the Persian had left near the site of the sea battle:

After some god had
handed the Greeks the glory in the seafight,
that same day they fenced their bodies in bronze armor
and leapt from their ships
and cordoned off
the island so completely that our men milled
helpless,
not knowing where to turn
while stones battered at them
and arrows twanging from the bowstrings
hit home killing them.
It ended
when the Greeks gave one great howl
and charged, chopping meat
till every living man was butchered.
(Lines 736-750)

Powerful stuff.

Look, I am by no means an expert at this but this is a play that even a novice such as myself was able to find meaning to. Yes, some of it bored me to no end and I have no desire to see the play performed live (the chorus still looks hokey even in this translation), but there is still something there to enjoy and take from this play. I know nothing about all the different translations of this play, but I can tell you that this particular one was excellent and however "authentic" it may or may not be it certainly made this ancient play accessible to an amateur like me. I cannot say the same about any other translation, so if you are looking to read this give this one a try. I highly recommend it.

Christians Divided Over Science Of Human Origins

[Y]ou're either going to accept that the Bible gives us the authoritative word concerning the entirety of our understanding of things relative to who we are as human beings, what God did in creating the world and what God did for us in Christ. If the Bible is not the authoritative source for that and instead has to be corrected by modern science, then the Bible is just there for our manipulation, and quite frankly, the Gospel is there for constant renegotiation. It ends up being another Gospel, the very thing the apostle Paul warned against.

So said Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in this very interesting discussion from an NPR podcast about evolution science and the Genesis story of the Fall. I have a difficult time understanding such misguided attitudes that pit faith against reason and seem to "kick against the pricks" (Acts 9:5 KJV). Perhaps coming from a Catholic background accepting evolution just wasn't as difficult for me than for a Southern Baptist like Mohler. Indeed, this 1994 document from the Pontifical Biblical Commission speaks about the dangers and folly of such thinking:

Fundamentalism also places undue stress upon the inerrancy of certain details in the biblical texts, especially in what concerns historical events or supposedly scientific truth. It often historicizes material which from the start never claimed to be historical. It considers historical everything that is reported or recounted with verbs in the past tense, failing to take the necessary account of the possibility of symbolic or figurative meaning...

It is often narrowly bound to one fixed translation, whether old or present-day. By the same token it fails to take account of the "re-readings" of certain texts which are found within the Bible itself...

The fundamentalist approach is dangerous, for it is attractive to people who look to the Bible for ready answers to the problems of life. It can deceive these people, offering them interpretations that are pious but illusory, instead of telling them that the Bible does not necessarily contain an immediate answer to each and every problem. Without saying as much in so many words, fundamentalism actually invites people to a kind of intellectual suicide. It injects into life a false certitude, for it unwittingly confuses the divine substance of the biblical message with what are in fact its human limitations.

The mental gymnastics one must engage in to ignore evolution and deny what seems to be pretty clear from all disciplines of science, that the universe is older than 6,000 years, life evolved and humanity did not arise from a single couple, seems to make a mockery of faith in my view. I do not expect a Bronze Age writer to expound upon scientific theory as we might do so today. Such was not a part of their culture and would have been completely alien to their understanding of the world. No, the Creation story in Genesis wasn't meant to be taken as science or history in my view but instead as myth which conveys a moral tale with essential truths about the faith. It seems to me rather silly to be continuing an argument about this that should have ended decades ago. Still, a good discussion and a podcast I recommend.

The Forgotten Refugees

Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5.

No matter what your views are on the Arab-Israeli Conflict, this documentary tells about an important part of it that is usually overlooked or is completely unknown by too many. A well-made and very interesting film.

You can also buy the DVD at Amazon here.

Elisha's Bones

Not a bad archaeological thriller. Parts of it were slow and the plot dragged on a bit but overall the writing was good. It kind of reminds me of Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code".

Egypt's Golden Empire

This interesting film on ancient Egypt comes from PBS' "Empires" collection of documentaries. It was very informative and enjoyable to watch. I highly recommend buying a copy for yourself... or you can watch it online here.

Finally.

It's been a long 18 years.

Thanks be to God that this odious policy is now gone and we can move on.

To all servicemembers straight OR gay, Godspeed.

UPDATE: This video really shows how much times have changed. An active duty soldier showing his face and saying he is gay on YouTube and also coming out to his father? Wow. I have mixed feelings about this but having once served under DADT, this really does signal to me the start of a new era.

UP-UPDATE: And here are 101 more.

Greek Drama: Tragedy and Comedy

More years ago than I care to remember, I can recall learning about ancient Greek plays in school and being completely underwhelmed. For all the talk about how much they influenced the development of Western culture, they were far too alien for my tastes - especially the moaning/wailing chorus which always struck me as being ridiculous and absurd. Some things just don't translate very well from one culture to another. Unfortunately though I missed out on learning from many of the Classics because of this.

Until now.

I came across this lecture by NYU Professor Peter Meineck which is part of The Modern Scholar series. I have to say that I am very impressed with Meineck's narration as he made the Greek plays he spoke about "come alive" to me in a way I've never experienced before. I actually wanted to read a few afterwards to see what inspired his obvious passion for them. All in all the time spent listening to this lecture on CD I believe was educational and well worth it. Even if you never cared much for most of the ancient Greek plays, as I did, I highly recommend getting this and giving it a try. You'll be glad that you did!

iPod Random Song List Game

This is a game of sorts that now defunct blogs I used to follow years ago started and I would join in from time to time. I rather liked it mainly because I have very eclectic tastes in music and I still find it interesting to see what crazy lists are generated.

Rules: Set your iPod on shuffle and post the first 10 songs that appear. No cheating!

1. "Danke Schoen" - Wayne Newton
2. "You've Got A Friend In Me" - Randy Newman
3. "Take A Bow" - Rihanna
4. "I Believe In Love" - Paula Cole
5. "Off I Go (2010 Mix)" - Greg Laswell
6. "The Joker" - Steve Miller Band
7. "Binary Sunset (Alternate)" - John Williams (Star Wars Episode IV soundtrack)
8. "Trouble Sleeping" - Corinne Bailey Rae
9. "Sad Eyes" - Robert John
10. "Paso La Vida Pensando" - Chayanne

The Rise & Fall of Oliver Cromwell

Very good documentary with David Starkey about that brutal Roundhead, bane of Irish Catholics and even British Anglicans.



Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5.

Kevin Roose on "The Unlikely Disciple"

Great talk by Kevin Roose about his book The Unlikely Disciple:

Kevin Roose at Gel 2010 (author, The Unlikely Disciple) from Gel Conference on Vimeo.

The Unlikely Disciple

I got this one, along with a great big pile of other books, very cheaply thanks to the implosion of Borders. Their unfortunate demise was to my benefit I suppose you could say, because this is one of the best books I've ever read about a slice of contemporary culture. Besides the premise and subject matter, what makes this book all the more amazing to me is that the author Kevin Roose was only 19 at the time. He has an incredible talent from what I saw in this book and I hope to see more from him in the future.

The book's premise was very intriguing to me of a Northern secular liberal secretly infiltrating a prominent bastion of the American Religious Right: Liberty University and Thomas Road Baptist Church, the heart of the Evangelical empire of the late Jerry Falwell. Here was the man who for most of my life had been on a crusade of sorts against folks like myself, with such incredibly noxious rhetoric that I certainly had no problems agreeing with Barry Goldwater when he said that "every good Christian ought to kick Falwell right in the ass". Yet what Roose discovered once he was there, really surprised him:

[T]he Liberty students I've met are a lot more socially adjusted than I expected. They're not rabid, frothing fundamentalists who spend their days sewing Hillary Clinton voodoo dolls and penning angry missives to the ACLU. Maybe I'm getting a skewed sample, but the ones I've met have been funny, articulate, and decidedly non-crazy.

I have to say that this is what made Roose's book so compelling to me. By this I do not mean that I was shocked to find out that the people he met didn't fit the stereotype he had imagined, I myself have had similar experiences with a number of Religious Right folks over the years, but the level of detail and description he gave was a good and much needed reminder of this to me. Sometimes we can get so wrapped up in politics and/or our own particular grudges that we tend to forget that most of those we disagree with aren't living personifications of evil but just as flawed and human as we are, trying to make sense of everything the best way they can. This doesn't mean that one should jettison their principles or whitewash their disagreements with others, not at all, only that we need to maintain perspective and not lose sight of the humanity of others. Lest anyone on the Right get cocky, this is something they need to do just as much given their demonization of gays and liberals (no, the terms are NOT synonymous) which has been as bad as what the Left has done against folks on the Right. Besides the story he had to tell, which by itself was fascinating to read, I guess this reminder was the best thing I took from Roose's book. Given the anniversary of 9/11 which recently passed, that is something I know that the late Fr. Mychal Judge would approve of as well.

Victim 0001

Excellent podcast about the life of the late Fr. Mychal Judge from RTÉ Radio 1. Check it out.

Generating new business?

So I went to the dentist today and this is what I found at the reception desk:

Hmm... capitalism at its finest I guess.

Fr. Mychal's Prayer

Nice prayer from the late Fr. Mychal Judge that I found at a website dedicated to his memory:

Lord, take me where You want me to go,
let me meet who You want me to meet,
tell me what You want me to say,
and keep me out of Your way.

These good folks at Trinity Lutheran Church in New York City were kind enough to turn Fr. Mychal's prayer into a decent hymn:

En Route

A cleverly-made and very enjoyable short film found on YouTube. It speaks to the common human question of "what would my life be like if I had done 'X' instead of 'Y' in the past?". This also really shows just how far computer graphics have come along because considering the low budget the special effects were actually quite good. Check them out for yourself as can be seen in this video and also see this interview with writer/director Colin Levy.

Remembering 9/11

I honestly didn't want to remember this day. Nevertheless, the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 has come. God help us all and continue comforting the families of the fallen. For E. at the Pentagon that day, may his soul rest in peace.

Franciscan Father Mychal Judge, chaplain to the Fire Department of New York, was in one of the Twin Towers ministering to the injured when an object fell on him, killing him. Fireman carried his body into St. Peter’s church.

"The firemen in shock came in with the priest’s body," Father Rutler recalled. "He was the first officially recorded death. They put his body in front of the altar. It was very moving. There is a picture of the Crucifixion over the altar. I remember blood coming down the altar steps. I shall always remember that scene."

Read the rest of Fr. Rutler's memories of 9/11 at the National Catholic Register. Pax vobiscum.

UPDATE: Box Turtle Bulletin has a good post today with more about Fr. Judge and others who lost their lives on 9/11.

UP-UPDATE: I highly recommend this excellent and moving documentary about the late Fr. Judge called Saint of 9/11. It can also be found online at YouTube, the first part of which starts here.

The Secret Trial of Robert E. Lee

Another good book finished. Interesting premise to the book and the author does a pretty good job of pulling it off, though it's a tad too "pro-Southern" for my tastes which if someone who's lived most of their life in the South like myself can see that, well...

A traitor's forsaken oath

It's amazing what one comes across whilst surfing the Net. I actually found this at Wikipedia while looking at an article about Canadian republicanism, which led me to look at other stuff and eventually, voila! This photo of the broken oath by the infamous traitor Benedict Arnold. Interesting piece of American history this paper represents. I almost feel sorry for Arnold because his name became reviled in America second only to that of Judas Iscariot. Almost.

One interesting item you can see in this photo: look where Arnold wrote the word "swear" in. This presumably comes from the practice of allowing one to "swear" or "affirm" an oath due to religious objections from groups like the Quakers, something carried over into our Constitution.

The King's Speech

At the risk of offending any Canadian Roundheads out there, I recently had the chance to watch this movie and really enjoyed it. Colin Firth did a remarkable job portraying King George VI and Geoffrey Rush was hilarious as Lionel Logue! Buy a copy or rent one because it's quite good and I highly recommend this one.

Canadian Cavaliers vs. Roundheads

I recently came across a podcast with a debate between supporters and opponents of the Canadian monarchy. With a proposition of "Is the Monarchy a Dangerous Relic of the Past?" one might be mistaken in believing that this debate was quite a raucous affair between the most diehard zealots on both sides. Yet in fact, despite the obvious ploy to gain attention with this proposition, the debate itself was an interesting, friendly and at times very humorous exchange. As an outsider to this debate I myself have a view that is probably typical for many Americans: I like the idea, pomp and "majesty" of monarchy but only when looking at those found in other countries because I certainly don't want one here. While our system isn't perfect and we unfortunately tend to bestow undo adulation upon musicians, sports stars and the Kennedys which others might place instead upon a monarch, we have still created our own national character without a monarchy and it definitely seems to work for us. Can the same be said for Canada? I don't know. I think that the monarchy is so much a part of British heritage and core identity that it would be extremely difficult to jettison it without losing a bit of themselves as Britons as well as jeopardizing the Union, but that's the U.K. and not Canada. Certainly it can be argued that Commonwealth realms like Canada and Australia have a bond sharing a common heritage and fraternal relationship that could be lost if they went completely republican. But to what degree? Other former British colonies besides the USA, like India, Ireland & South Africa no longer retain the monarchy as Head of State and are doing just fine. It's a tough decision for them to make and the debate in general, as well as this one in particular, is interesting to follow.

"St. Athanasius on Repentance"

I had mixed feelings watching this video from the series "Saints Speak" by Arcadia Films:

1. Intrigued by the concept. Who wouldn't want to hear the saints speak about various matters that concern each one of us?

2. Disturbed that thanks to actor Morten Kublick's very good looks, I'll never look at St. Athanasius the same way again. "Thou shalt not lust after saints" has got to be a corollary to at least one of the Commandments.

3. Amused at how incredibly over-the-top the music, acting and effects are. In a sense it's almost a pious version of Rocky Horror in that it is actually good because it's so bad. Only what am I supposed to throw at the screen instead of toast, rice and hot dogs? Rosary beads?

Eh, even with all of this this video and the others in the series will undoubtedly still inspire some folks so in spite of the unintentional humor that's good I suppose.

Prisoner of the Vatican

I recently finished reading this fascinating history of the fall of the Papal States and the birth of modern Italy, along with the contentious early years between the papacy and the Italian monarchy. For many Catholics today used to pontificates like that of the late John Paul II, reading about Pius IX & Leo XIII scheming with foreign powers to undermine the 'godless' Italian state and working for the restoration of their own temporal power, is probably a bit shocking. I can see the need for a sovereign Vatican City but theocracy a la the Papal States holds absolutely no appeal to me. Still, while the papacy may not come across in the best light in this history neither do the early modern Italian leaders. Some of them were just as fanatical and just as objectionable as some of those in the papal party, only from the other side of the spectrem of course. Losing the Papal States was probably the best thing to happen to the Church in quite a long time. One thing for sure is that is helped bring us popes like John XXIII or JPII, who while flawed were both good men and probably never would have sat in St. Peter's Chair if the events of this book hadn't of happened. An interesting bit of history and a book I highly recommend.

"Into the West"

When I heard this song in The Return of the King movie a few years ago, I thought that Annie Lennox had given a remarkable performance in her singing of it which I found to be quite moving. This is the first time that I've heard anyone else do almost a good a job as she did. He falters and starts out slow but eventually he hits the notes almost as well as Lennox did. The renowned Vienna Boys' Choir aside, this particular song seems to be tailor-made for a singing voice that women like Lennox can carry higher notes with amazingly well. However, this young man does a remarkable job with it and is truly blessed with a good voice.

Ancient Egyptians

A superb film from Warner Brothers which like the one from the BBC I previously blogged about is also "part personal drama, part documentary, part history lesson". This one is good not only because of the CGI effects it employs that help to bring ancient Egypt "alive" to the viewer, but also because it tells real stories from that culture that most folks have never heard of: murder in an Egyptian temple; two sisters betrayed by their mother and tossed out into the street to fend for themselves; etc. I really liked this one and felt that I caught a glimpse into what ancient Egypt was really like, not just for the nobility but the common man as well. Get a copy of this (buy, rent, whatever), you won't be sorry!