Tonight’s book-with-wine discussion is about Vasily Grossman‘s novel, Everything Flows (New York Review Book, USA, 2009). It was his final work, and left unfinished at the time of his death, in 1964. It’s not a difficult read, but it …
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Scripturient: A little musical Canadiana
Among my collection of many (many!) vintage song books and song sheets, I have a bundle of patriotic music from WWI. I was browsing through them again this week and found several songs written and published during the war, either as songs for the soldi…
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: What Happened Before History?
Context is nice with regards to where we are and what we are doing in the world. Predictably, the religious find a great deal wrong with this video as it is based on reality as opposed to magic. 🙂 Filed under: History Tagged: History, Science, What Happened Before History
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: B-17 Flying Fortress over Regina
Regina was lucky to get a visit from the famous World War II bomber plane. I spent a few days running outside in the morning when I heard it roaring overhead, and snapping some photos and shooting videos. My older SD video camera has a much better 12X real zoom (48X digital), but my phone […]
Continue readingScripturient: Moses Revealed
He was a murderer, a sorcerer, a slave owner. He betrayed his adopted family and led a rebellion against them. He was a charismatic firebrand, an oracle, and a misfit. He fluctuated between fits of rage and periods of meekness. He led his forces to com…
Continue readingScripturient: Alger Hiss, Richard Nixon and Collingwood
Remember the case of Alger Hiss? I didn’t think so. It was before your time. Mine too. But let me jog your memory, just in case you’re older than I am. Or perhaps just well read in recent history. Hiss was a US government employee, a diplom…
Continue readingScripturient: Demagogues and dictators
I’m not sure why they fascinate me, but I’ve been reading about demagogues and dictators for many decades now and still can’t seem to get enough of them. Of course, it’s in part because I like to read about politics in all its…
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Eugene Debs – The American Politician We Don’t Hear Much About
From Wikipedia: “Eugene Victor “Gene” Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) was an American union leader, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or the Wobblies), and five times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States.[1] Through his presidential candidacies, […]
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Wood Mountain: Population 21
When I was ten, my family picked up an exchange student from the Regina airport. It was Winter. As the South American boy rode with me on the van bench, across an open prairie between Regina and Moose Jaw, he asked how many people lived in Wood Mountain. I replied proudly, “Forty people live in […]
Continue readingScripturient: The Myth of Persecution
I just finished reading The Myth of Persecution by theology professor Candida Moss (Harper One, New York, 2013). I picked it up because of my general interest in theology, but also my more specific interest in early church history. I didn’t reali…
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Happy Gotcha-versairy, Shadow!
On May 15, 2012, Arb and I took possession of the house we now live in. Back in early April 2012, literally the same day we closed on the house, I started looking on Petfinder for a dog. We were going to have a fenced yard, and I had always wanted a dog. Arb grew up with […]
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The Real Vietnam War – Nick Turse
The history that we’re not told about, the history that we need to know. Twenty five minutes of what we are not supposed to know.
Nick Turse describes the horror that is war.Filed under: History Tagged: History, Kill Anything that Moves, Nick …
Continue readingScripturient: Stoic or Epicurian?
I’ve been listening to the History of Rome podcasts of late and was pondering on some of the comments about the emperor Marcus Aurelius. He was, before listening, one of my top three choices for best ruler of the empire. What better role model th…
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Historical Perspective on the Advancement of Women – Gerda Lerner
Seventy two years (+) of struggle just to get right to vote, and an uphill battle *all* of the way. Now who exactly was creating such resistance to positive social change? Hmm… now that is quite the puzzle now isn’t it. Those in power will never willingly concede their power. Not ever. What it takes […]
Continue readingwmtc: what i’m reading: the deserters, a hidden history of world war 2
No one knows exactly how many US soldiers deserted from the Vietnam War, nor how many young men resisted conscription by going either to jail or to another country. The most conservative account puts the number at about 50,000, the highest at about dou…
Continue readingwmtc: james connolly, sid ryan, and marxism 2016
This is The Proclamation. The Proclamation was read by Padraig (Patrick) Pearse outside the General Post Office in Dublin on April 24, 1916. This marked the beginning of the Easter Rising. Rather less dramatically, a copy of the Proclamation has hung o…
Continue readingwmtc: rtod: we only want the earth
On the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising, these Revolutionary Thoughts of the Day are brought to you by the great Irish socialist, James Connolly.The day has passed for patching up the capitalist system; it must go. (1910)This speech, from 1897, i…
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Second Wave Smackdown – On Prostitution
It takes dedicated effort to remove these sorts of fiery speeches from the history of women. Oratory like this somehow doesn’t make it into the classrooms, or history lectures. So the lessons need to be discovered, theorized, and fought for in each generation of women making progress glacially slow. Yet we have helpful mnemonics for […]
Continue readingScripturient: O tempora, o mores!
Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum. Marcus Tullius Cicero wrote those words in the short book about a Roman court case, Pro Lucio Murena (For Lucius Murena). They mean, in English, Not…
Continue readingwmtc: a petition to exonerate ethel rosenberg
Of all the outrageously unjust moments in United States history – and dog knows there are many to choose from – the execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg holds a special place in my political underpinnings. It was an event I learned about early on, o…
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