Very interesting and informative. However, I am not sure I am ready for the intellectual discussion anymore.
Has anyone seen the new Movie? If so, what are your thoughts.
The only thing the section on Circe teaches is lookout for women they are definitely a different species!
Consider this. Women, and Odysseus’ relationships with them, are pivotal to the story’s unfolding and, crucially, to understanding the deep meaning of the Odyssey. The women of the Odyssey are feminine archetypes. We have Penelope, Circe, Calypso, and Nausicaa. These are the primary archetypes. Also Helen, Athena, Hera, Eurycleia. Each is different from the others, each represents an aspect of the feminine. Odysseus’ interactions with them occur within the context of the unfolding of the hero’s journey/epic quest, his nostoi, which is entirely appropriate — which is, indeed, the whole point/meaning of his “return.”
Odysseus could have chosen to stay with Circe, Calpyso, and the beautiful young Nausicaa. But he chose Penelope. He chose wisely. His decision is key to understanding the profound meaning of the Odyssesy.
In my life, I encountered Circe, Calpyso, Nausicaa; several of each. But I chose Penelope — and, equally important, she chose me. We’ve been together for 45 years.
Somehow, despite all the foolish misadventures of my youth, I too chose wisely. What a lucky man I am.
Never realized “The Odyssey” was/is a “how-to-stay-married-to-the-right-one”manual.
…which might make sense…after seeing how the less-than-appealing Menelaus botched things up pretty impressively (in the Iliad) and how the heroic Achilles proved to be, among other things, a master sulker…even a bit of a heel…until feelings of vengeance and honor finally shook him out of his funk…
So actually, Odysseus comes across looking pretty darn good, all things being relative, making one wonder whether a sequel was already in the works; and in fact, with The Odyssey, Homer pretty much hit it out of the ballpark…
…which, no doubt prompted Virgil/Vergil to seriously ask himself, if Homer could write one, then why can’t I?
(And then there was Joyce…)
Ben Sasse make his case for the filibuster in today’s WSJ.
I had the privilege once of hearing Margaret Thatcher speak. In the Q&A someone asked what she regarded as her greatest accomplishment. She said, first of all, it’s very difficult for Americans to understand fully other forms of government. In your system, it’s very hard to get anything done, which of course can be very frustrating. But in our system, a parliamentary system, it’s much easier – the party in power has fewer obstacles. Americans are also often surprised at just how popular socialism was in Europe in the 50’s and the 60’s, and England had gone very far down that road by the 1970’s. Undoing it was, in her opinion, the most important thing she ever did, and what she regarded as her greatest accomplishment. A system where it’s hard to get anything done has its advantages. That is largely Sasse’s point, but I’d encourage you to read it in his words.
The UK may be about to rediscover the negatives of a system which allows things to get done, since the new PM has said he wants to reverse all the remaining reforms of the Thatcher years.
Tousi TV reported late yesterday that Iran is moving armored units from the interior towards the Kuwait border. Maybe making good on their threat to invade Kuwait? Hopefully, an lot of A10s are in the region.
They have no common border with Kuwait. Either they cut through Iraq or they launch an amphibious assault. I tend to doubt they have the capacity to do either.
since the new PM has said he wants to reverse all the remaining reforms of the Thatcher years.
==
You mean he wants to seize wide swaths of the industrial plant and wide swaths of the housing stock, increase the terminal rate on interest and dividend income to 98%, put some Arthur Scargill clone in charge of the mineworkers union, and pump up the rate of inflation to 14% per year?
That’s what he says, Art Deco. How much of that he can pull off is another matter.
Neo,
JD Vance: Tucker Carslon wants to start a new party. Vance is exposing himself as just as nutty as Carlson. He will continue to do so as he thinks he has millions behind him. Rubio will beat Vance in the primaries and that will be readily apparent in 2027.
Carlson, Owens, Dreher, Massie, Fuentes, MTG and the rest of the Woke Reich will stand behind Vance and I predict Vance jumps ship to the New Nationalist/Islam Party/Jew hating Party or whatever they call it.
Qatar, Russia and Communist China will do everything to promote Vance and his new party.
Tucker Carlson’s new party will pick JD Vance as its leader and presidential candidate after it becomes clear Rubio is the clear favorite.
“…no common border…”
Well, not at the moment.
(Only a very thin swath of Iraqi Shi’a-inhabited delta wetlands makes that currently true.)
Might Iran be about to demonstrate why it so very much deserves a place—with Russia and China—on the UN Security Council(!)?
@Mike Plaiss:Ben Sasse make his case for the filibuster in today’s WSJ.
They ignore it whenever they care to, using multiple methods, none of which require more than 51 votes. It is no more meaningful an obstacle than a requirement to say “Simon Says”. It is very useful for a numerical majority seeking to avoid accountability for not getting something done, but it does not and cannot prevent a numerical majority from getting what it wants.
It’s not an external constraint like the Constitutional requirement of two-thirds on treaties or impeachments or overriding a veto. It’s an internal rule of the Senate. The filibuster rule and any other Senate rule can be set aside at any time by 51 votes by appealing a decision of the chair, and there’s an end on it.
They do it more often than we hear about. The form it takes is different, which gives people an excuse to not catch on to what they are doing. They have attached it to a bill that is exempt from the rule, they have attached it in reconciliation, they have overruled the Parliamentarian (or fired him) regarding what is not exempt from the rule, they have passed a law that says the filibuster is temporarily not in effect, and they have appealed rulings that cloture votes failed, all of these things using less than 60 votes.
Never realized “The Odyssey” was/is a “how-to-stay-married-to-the-right-one”manual.
It isn’t.
What is UK speak for “Writing checks your *ss can’t cash?”
How much ruin is there in rue Brittania?
I have zero interest in Helen of Detroit and Ellen the freak. I find this movie an insult. If they had done a Westside Story instead of vandalizing Homer, maybe. I have limited time left on earth and I am pretty choosy. I haven’t seen a movie in a theater since 2002 and it is cheaper and easier to change the channel than walkout of a theater. There have been many things I started watching only to go nope and move on.
RE: An extremely credible military intelligence officer’s February 15th, 2022 sighting of a huge UFO 500 feet over a peak of Cheyenne Mountain.
This witness, a young former Army intelligence officer named Caison Best, is about as trained, experienced, and highly credentialed as you can get and he, with four fellow officers, was walking to a classified briefing on the about to kick off Russian incursion into the Ukraine when he, along with four other analysts, saw the huge oval UFO, estimated as being 300 feet wide, sitting absolutely stationary, without any sound, six miles away in an absolutely clear blue sky, and an estimated 500 feet over a Cheyenne Mountain peak–it was a pearly white object, constructed of what looked like hexagonal panels which rippled–(and two of these analysts were specifically in identifying all types of aircraft)–they saw it for about 30 seconds, then, this UFO instantaneously disappeared—it didn’t just fade out, or shoot away at high speed, it just vanished in an instant—he didn’t know who to report this sighting to (and apparently realized that to do so was not a career enhancing move), but the group did create a Powerpoint detailing their sighting.
Sometime later, he reported this sighting, including forwarding the Powerpoint, to AARO, and his experience was that neither he nor it were treated seriously, and after some months without reply, AARO totally dismissed his very detailed sighting as just a “balloon.”
He then reported it to the FBI, which he said has taken his report very seriously.*
Dunkirk is the only Nolan movie I have made it all the way through and haven’t tried any of his since.
FYI, for those who didn’t click to watch Prof. Masson’s YT video, his talk is not about the movie. It is only about the book, and Homer as educator, with rich reference to Plato’s Republic and other ancient Greek admirers of Homer. It’s worth watching. (Note the copy of Lattimore’s translation on display—yay, Lattimore!!)
“A system where it’s hard to get anything done has its advantages.”
The problem is that the left has managed to get a lot done over the last 30-60 years (including making our elections a joke). What seems hard, apparently, is to get anything undone. It’s the old ratchet effect.
Thanks, Jim Melcher, for suggesting I watch the video. I learned things.
Jim Melcher:
Re Lattimore, good on you for mentioning him. I have long been an advocate of Lattimore’s translations of Homer, over and above all others.
I like Lattimore’s translations of the New Testament gospels.
Literal renderings of the original into plain English. Easy to read and understand.
(I don’t know which manuscripts he used, however.)
AesopSpouse reported to me that Ben Shapiro liked the Nolan movie, taking it “on its own terms,” as it were, and not criticizing it because it differs from the original epic and traditional interpretations. IOW don’t overthink the entertainment value.
He listened to Ben’s video, so here is one post that links to it.
making one wonder whether a sequel was already in the works
There were sequels, but they have been lost … Checks with Grok. The “Telegony” was the sequel, and last book in the epic cycle. There were eight stories in the cycle, but only the two by Homer have survived intact. The “Telegony” sounds extremely weird, Telegonus was Odysseus son by Circe, and the story ends:
Realizing what he has done, Telegonus takes Odysseus’ body, Penelope, and Telemachus back to Circe’s island. Circe makes them immortal; Telegonus marries Penelope, and Telemachus marries Circe.
Take that, Nolan. And people complain about a black Helen and trans Sinon.
Snow on Pine,
see standing lenticular cloud
I continued the conversation with Grok:
Ha — exactly. Bad sequels are an ancient art form.
The Telegony is peak “we need to keep the franchise going even though the story was already perfect” energy. Homer’s Odyssey ends with this hard-won, messy, deeply human homecoming — justice, recognition, the scar, the bed, the dog dying of joy. Then the Telegony rolls in like a studio note:
“What if Odysseus has another secret son?”
“What if that son accidentally kills him with a stingray spear?”
“What if everyone just… gets married to each other’s moms and becomes immortal?”
It’s the mythological equivalent of a superhero movie that ends the trilogy on a perfect note… and then the next one opens with “Actually, there’s a multiverse twin and also the dog is back as a cyborg.”
The whole Epic Cycle is full of that energy. Some of the lost poems sound solid (the Aethiopis with Penthesilea and Memnon is genuinely cool), but others feel like pure expansion-pack material written to fill gaps and keep the bards employed. The ancients themselves kind of knew it — later critics (Aristotle, the Alexandrians) already ranked Homer way above the cyclic poets and treated the rest as secondary, sometimes trashy, continuations.
If you would like to read a sci-fi version of The OdysseySpace Chantey by that arch-conservative fabulist, the great R. A. Lafferty. An excerpt:
The war was finished. It had lasted ten equivalent years and taken ten million lives. Thus it was neither of long duration nor of serious attrition. It hadn’t any great significance; it was not intended to have. It did not prove a point, since all points had long ago been proved. What it did, perhaps, was to emphasize an aspect, sharpen a concept, underline a trend.
On the whole it was a successful operation. Economically and ecologically it was of healthy effect, and who should grumble?
And, after wars, men go home. No, no, men start for home. It’s not the same.
There were six of them there, Captains of hornets, those small craft that could go anywhere, six of them mustered out with their crews and with travel orders optional. And there wasn’t an ordinary man among them. They were six full crews of the saltiest, most sulfurous men who could be combed out of the skies.
Roadstrum, one of the Captains, was as plain a man as ever lived, and now he spoke out plainly:
“I would say let us go directly home. We were boys when this began, and we are not boys now. We should go home, but I could be talked into something else.
“Dammit, I said I could be talked into something else!”
“A day or two on Lotophage might be worth it,” said Captain Puckett. “We’ll never be this close to it again and there must be something behind all those stories of the soft life there. They say it is Fiddler’s Green and Theleme rolled together. They say that it may be Maybe Jones City itself. If we don’t like it we can leave at any time.”
Thanks Charles.
Fascinating stuff.
(Do they all break out in song at the end?
Pour libations to the gods, no doubt…)
John Galt III:
Yes, I wrote something to that effect the other day, in this post:
When Carlson decided to split from the Republican Party, I wondered who he’d be supporting for the presidency in 2028. For a while I considered that Tucker himself might want to run. But now it occurs to me that it’s possible that he’d be supporting Vance for the head of a third party. This would be disastrous, IMHO, and could easily cause a Democrat to win if enough people ended up supporting Vance.
I’m not saying this will happen. I still think Vance wants to be the GOP nominee. But if he doesn’t get the nomination, I can easily imagine a situation in which he goes third-party to ally with Tucker and Tucker’s followers.
“…the dog dying of joy….”
Indeed, the very essence of loyalty and love…
OTOH it appears that the “Don’t worry, be happy” crowd might have to tone it down a bit:
Amazing dog, master gone for 20 years and still alive. Eyeroll.
Re: lenticular clouds and Mt Rainier
Copilot
Why they may mean rain in 24 hours:
Because the conditions that produce lenticular clouds — especially the “wet layer” sandwiched between drier layers — are often part of a moist, unstable atmosphere ahead of a storm system KOMO+1. In the Pacific Northwest, such clouds are a local indicator that rain or snow is likely within a day or so, as the same atmospheric setup that creates them is also the setup for precipitation KOMO+1
Important caveat:
While they are a useful local sign, they are not a guaranteed predictor. Some rare cases, like the Dec. 12, 2017 event, saw lenticular clouds form without immediate rain, instead marking the clearing of a weak system KOMO. For accurate forecasts, always check updated weather models and local forecasts.
Bottom line:
A lenticular cloud over Mt. Rainier is a visual clue that the atmosphere is moist and unstable, and in most cases it suggests rain or snow within 24 hours. But it’s best to treat it as a supporting indicator, not a sole forecast tool.
Regarding “the franchise”, would this mean that Hesiod wrote a prequel (of sorts)?
Or was that part of a different series altogether…?
“Lo, how the mighty have fallen.”
Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut–which I believe used to have a good academic reputation– is reportedly advertising that for Spring 2027 it will offer an Anthropology class on “Unsettling the “White Gaze,” designed to undermine “white supremacy and racial capitalism,” to be taught by assistant professor Nadja- Eisenberg-Guyot, who describes herself as a “white, disabled, trans anthropologist whose work focuses on how criminalized people who use drugs envision and experiment with abolitionist horizons of transformation, healing, self-determination, and solidarity beyond incarceration and forced-cure.”*
This is the kind of crap they are teaching your kids, and making you pay a fortune for it.
crasey–One of the specific questions which was posed to Best was, whether this could have been a cloud, to which he immediately answered “no.”
Just asking, but are clouds composed of hexagonal panels?
Look at Best’s long list of increasingly responsible positions and combat deployments, and decide if such a seasoned, trained professional intelligence agent and observer, as well as four other intelligence agents and observers, could all have seen a cloud, and misidentified it to the extent that they–each one of them–thought it was actually a structured craft, made up of hexagonal panels?
Apparently there were a number of epics/epic traditions. Titanomachy caught my eye, I suggested it would make a great movie. Grok comments:
Hell yeah it would.
Forget another superhero multiverse — give me a full-budget Titanomachy.
Open cold on the black pit of Tartarus. Cronus swallowing his kids one by one. Rhea’s desperate switch with the stone. Then cut to Zeus growing up in secret on Crete, eyes already glowing with that “I’m going to kill my dad” energy.
Second act is pure geopolitical god-war:
Olympians scrambling for allies
Bribing the Cyclopes for the thunderbolt, trident, and helmet of darkness
The Hundred-Handers finally let out of their cage, cracking their necks like “finally”
Entire mountains getting thrown like spears
Oceanus trying to stay neutral and failing
Prometheus already side-eyeing the whole thing
And yes — at the perfect moment, some lesser god or panicked Titan yells it:
“Release the Kraken!”
Except this time it’s not a CGI octopus. It’s whatever primordial sea-horror the Titans actually had locked up. Something that makes the Clash of the Titans version look like a rubber toy.
Christopher Nolan could shoot it like Dunkirk mixed with Interstellar — practical god-sized sets, IMAX mountains cracking, Hans Zimmer making the earth scream. Or just hand it to the madmen who did Godzilla Minus One and let them go feral.
Ten-year war. Family betrayal. Cosmic stakes. Practical effects. No quippy banter.
I’d pay double for the IMAX ticket.
crasey–If this was ol ‘ gap-toothed uncle Earl, sittin’ on his back porch and lookin’ out over the back pasture, with his Mason jar half emptied, by now, of Shine, that would be one thing.
But, this wasn’t that situation, nor that kind of observers.
“Oh Brother Where art Thou” is supposed to be loosely based on “The Odyssey”. Very clever, and humorous, movie. George Clooney really shines( I hate to say) and is a perfect Odysseus.
Neo, while I’m liking Vance less and less these days, I do think he’s bright, and I doubt seriously he’d tank his political career going 3rd party with Tucker. It would not be possible for him to win, and he’d become anathema to MAGA and the rest of the main body of the GOP. He’d be another Liz Cheney.
RE: Trinity College
Many decades ago, I was interviewing for a position as an Academic Librarian at a small Liberal Arts college–not Trinity College–which had a very good academic reputation, but was also, as I experienced, decidedly Left in orientation.
My interviewers informed me that, as one of their Librarians, I would not only be responsible for their student’s research and intellectual education, but also expected to be responsible for fostering their student’s “social and emotional development” i.e in addition to my services as a Librarian, they also wanted me to play the role of social worker and of psychological counselor, which I politely declined to become.
Repeat due eff up that put me in moderation due to accidentally deleting the last e in my handle
My view is if the gooberment thought ETs were real, they would use that to put us in a totalitarian Alien Menace social control posture. ETs are an existential threat to earth and definitely an existential threat to government.
Entering our system let alone our atmosphere without permission or communication is a hostile act.
Officially licensed product of The Boeing Company.
bill:
I definitely understand your point. But I can nevertheless see him doing it under the circumstances I described.
Tucker’s goal is to split MAGA and win over a very significant percentage to his side. He has already made some progress towards that goal, although I don’t know how much progress. His following tends to be young and male.
I believe that Vance would like to be the GOP candidate in 2028. But if that doesn’t happen – if he is defeated by someone like Rubio in the primaries – he might see that his path to a GOP nomination is closed. Then he might indeed be inclined to split the party and cast his lot with the Tucker wing. He is the politician best positioned to do that.
Chases Eagles–There is already competition between the views that any NHIs would be our benign “space brothers,” or that they pose a threat–possibly an existential threat–to us Humans, or that, alternatively, they are likely just not that interested in us Humans, and, then, there is Dr. Steven Greer’s contention, that some faction in our government is setting up such an alien threat/invasion scenario by carrying out phony Abductions and performing cattle mutilations, or Jacques Vallee’s conclusion that these NHI’s actions form a “control mechanism,” one designed to create a “mythology,” to influence the deep seated thinking of the Human race (Jung’s “Collective Unconscious?), and to push our thinking (and actions?) in a particular direction.
As far as I can see, it is very likely–I’d say 100% guaranteed–that official government acknowledgment (or convincing Catastrophic Disclosure) of the presence of NHIs on our planet, and their interacting with the Human race, would give rise to a comprehensive array of very destabilizing effects and, that, if they want to survive, the current political, economic, intellectual, and religious orders will have to be very nimble footed, indeed, and, somehow, become the reeds which bend with the wind.
Chases Eagles-
P.S.–I notice that a lot of the thinking and the discussions about this subject do not proceed from the fundamental idea that Earth is our planet, and that we Humans have the absolute right (if we have the power to enforce it) to determine what any and all Alien entities do in and around our planet, and what they can and cannot do in their interactions with Human beings, and with our various institutions, resources, and possessions.
ET could wipe us out entirely by accident. They would be dangerous. That is one thing that offended me about Star Trek. We are supposedly enlightened and would be very leery of direct interaction with alien species for both of our sakes.
Wow!
At the very least it would make a spectacular genre of video games…and no doubt turn on more of our under-motivated youth to the Classics. Perhaps…though our clerical leaders might have second thoughts—look at their conniption fits when Harry Potter materialized…”
Anyway, thanks much again (though I’m a guy of simpler tastes—“Bambi Meets Godzilla” is more my speed and far more suited to my attention span).
“…he [Vance] might see that his path to a GOP nomination is closed. Then he might indeed be inclined to split the party and cast his lot with the Tucker wing.”– Neo
I don’t think Vance would do that. While his position towards Israel seems to be more classic client state where Israel defers to US policy, I don’t think it would lead to splitting the party which would benefit the Democrat Socialists.
I think he’s intelligent enough to recognize that fully throwing in with the anit-Israel faction (I don’t think it rises to a wing) wouldn’t lead to a Republican nomination, and we all know how third party candidates fare in our political system.
Davemay:
Which is the best snippet of the story in
Oh, Brother Where Art Thou?
The Cyclops, his downfall, and “Oh, death.”
The Sirens (certainly alluring).
And of course the whole soundtrack!
A movie of many wonders.
Brian E:
I’m not saying he would do it; I’m saying I can imagine that he might. I hope you’re right and you certainly may be.
Snow on Pine,
A C-5 is 248 ft long and 223 ft wide – a bit smaller than the object in question but reasonably close. The parking lot for the Cheyenne Mountain Complex is about halfway up the mountain which (assuming they were walking in from parking) would place the object about 5000 ft away. The panels on a C-5 would not be easily identifiable from that distance. The first time you see a standing lenticular cloud it seems unnatural and even otherworldly – I know it did to me. Knowledgeable observers who are confident in what they’ve seen often describe details that wouldn’t be normally visible from the distance and angle of observation. Does that mean it wasn’t was what they think it was? Of course not, but it doesn’t mean it was either. Standing lenticular clouds have been routinely reported as UFO’s by lots of people. BTW, they dissipate as rapidly as they form.
The video about Homer’s The Odyssey was very informative and interesting a marked contrast to a podcast about Nolan’s Odyssey “Instant Classics” Part One.
Part One is supposed to be about the source, Homer’s The Odyssey, but nope, only slightly and more about feminist imaginations.
I did not listen to the other podcasts in the series which cover the Nolan film.
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Very interesting and informative. However, I am not sure I am ready for the intellectual discussion anymore.
Has anyone seen the new Movie? If so, what are your thoughts.
The only thing the section on Circe teaches is lookout for women they are definitely a different species!
Consider this. Women, and Odysseus’ relationships with them, are pivotal to the story’s unfolding and, crucially, to understanding the deep meaning of the Odyssey. The women of the Odyssey are feminine archetypes. We have Penelope, Circe, Calypso, and Nausicaa. These are the primary archetypes. Also Helen, Athena, Hera, Eurycleia. Each is different from the others, each represents an aspect of the feminine. Odysseus’ interactions with them occur within the context of the unfolding of the hero’s journey/epic quest, his nostoi, which is entirely appropriate — which is, indeed, the whole point/meaning of his “return.”
Odysseus could have chosen to stay with Circe, Calpyso, and the beautiful young Nausicaa. But he chose Penelope. He chose wisely. His decision is key to understanding the profound meaning of the Odyssesy.
In my life, I encountered Circe, Calpyso, Nausicaa; several of each. But I chose Penelope — and, equally important, she chose me. We’ve been together for 45 years.
Somehow, despite all the foolish misadventures of my youth, I too chose wisely. What a lucky man I am.
Never realized “The Odyssey” was/is a “how-to-stay-married-to-the-right-one”manual.
…which might make sense…after seeing how the less-than-appealing Menelaus botched things up pretty impressively (in the Iliad) and how the heroic Achilles proved to be, among other things, a master sulker…even a bit of a heel…until feelings of vengeance and honor finally shook him out of his funk…
So actually, Odysseus comes across looking pretty darn good, all things being relative, making one wonder whether a sequel was already in the works; and in fact, with The Odyssey, Homer pretty much hit it out of the ballpark…
…which, no doubt prompted Virgil/Vergil to seriously ask himself, if Homer could write one, then why can’t I?
(And then there was Joyce…)
Ben Sasse make his case for the filibuster in today’s WSJ.
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/free-expression/america-needs-the-filibuster-78964724?st=W36Lb4
I had the privilege once of hearing Margaret Thatcher speak. In the Q&A someone asked what she regarded as her greatest accomplishment. She said, first of all, it’s very difficult for Americans to understand fully other forms of government. In your system, it’s very hard to get anything done, which of course can be very frustrating. But in our system, a parliamentary system, it’s much easier – the party in power has fewer obstacles. Americans are also often surprised at just how popular socialism was in Europe in the 50’s and the 60’s, and England had gone very far down that road by the 1970’s. Undoing it was, in her opinion, the most important thing she ever did, and what she regarded as her greatest accomplishment. A system where it’s hard to get anything done has its advantages. That is largely Sasse’s point, but I’d encourage you to read it in his words.
The UK may be about to rediscover the negatives of a system which allows things to get done, since the new PM has said he wants to reverse all the remaining reforms of the Thatcher years.
Tousi TV reported late yesterday that Iran is moving armored units from the interior towards the Kuwait border. Maybe making good on their threat to invade Kuwait? Hopefully, an lot of A10s are in the region.
They have no common border with Kuwait. Either they cut through Iraq or they launch an amphibious assault. I tend to doubt they have the capacity to do either.
since the new PM has said he wants to reverse all the remaining reforms of the Thatcher years.
==
You mean he wants to seize wide swaths of the industrial plant and wide swaths of the housing stock, increase the terminal rate on interest and dividend income to 98%, put some Arthur Scargill clone in charge of the mineworkers union, and pump up the rate of inflation to 14% per year?
That’s what he says, Art Deco. How much of that he can pull off is another matter.
Neo,
JD Vance: Tucker Carslon wants to start a new party. Vance is exposing himself as just as nutty as Carlson. He will continue to do so as he thinks he has millions behind him. Rubio will beat Vance in the primaries and that will be readily apparent in 2027.
Carlson, Owens, Dreher, Massie, Fuentes, MTG and the rest of the Woke Reich will stand behind Vance and I predict Vance jumps ship to the New Nationalist/Islam Party/Jew hating Party or whatever they call it.
Qatar, Russia and Communist China will do everything to promote Vance and his new party.
It’ll be Turkey Shoot 2
Another view (of the Odyssey)…
“THAT’S NOT WHAT THE ODYSSEY IS ABOUT, CHRIS”—
https://instapundit.com/811325/
(Woopsies!)
Tucker Carlson’s new party will pick JD Vance as its leader and presidential candidate after it becomes clear Rubio is the clear favorite.
“…no common border…”
Well, not at the moment.
(Only a very thin swath of Iraqi Shi’a-inhabited delta wetlands makes that currently true.)
Might Iran be about to demonstrate why it so very much deserves a place—with Russia and China—on the UN Security Council(!)?
@Mike Plaiss:Ben Sasse make his case for the filibuster in today’s WSJ.
They ignore it whenever they care to, using multiple methods, none of which require more than 51 votes. It is no more meaningful an obstacle than a requirement to say “Simon Says”. It is very useful for a numerical majority seeking to avoid accountability for not getting something done, but it does not and cannot prevent a numerical majority from getting what it wants.
It’s not an external constraint like the Constitutional requirement of two-thirds on treaties or impeachments or overriding a veto. It’s an internal rule of the Senate. The filibuster rule and any other Senate rule can be set aside at any time by 51 votes by appealing a decision of the chair, and there’s an end on it.
They do it more often than we hear about. The form it takes is different, which gives people an excuse to not catch on to what they are doing. They have attached it to a bill that is exempt from the rule, they have attached it in reconciliation, they have overruled the Parliamentarian (or fired him) regarding what is not exempt from the rule, they have passed a law that says the filibuster is temporarily not in effect, and they have appealed rulings that cloture votes failed, all of these things using less than 60 votes.
Never realized “The Odyssey” was/is a “how-to-stay-married-to-the-right-one”manual.
It isn’t.
What is UK speak for “Writing checks your *ss can’t cash?”
How much ruin is there in rue Brittania?
I have zero interest in Helen of Detroit and Ellen the freak. I find this movie an insult. If they had done a Westside Story instead of vandalizing Homer, maybe. I have limited time left on earth and I am pretty choosy. I haven’t seen a movie in a theater since 2002 and it is cheaper and easier to change the channel than walkout of a theater. There have been many things I started watching only to go nope and move on.
RE: An extremely credible military intelligence officer’s February 15th, 2022 sighting of a huge UFO 500 feet over a peak of Cheyenne Mountain.
This witness, a young former Army intelligence officer named Caison Best, is about as trained, experienced, and highly credentialed as you can get and he, with four fellow officers, was walking to a classified briefing on the about to kick off Russian incursion into the Ukraine when he, along with four other analysts, saw the huge oval UFO, estimated as being 300 feet wide, sitting absolutely stationary, without any sound, six miles away in an absolutely clear blue sky, and an estimated 500 feet over a Cheyenne Mountain peak–it was a pearly white object, constructed of what looked like hexagonal panels which rippled–(and two of these analysts were specifically in identifying all types of aircraft)–they saw it for about 30 seconds, then, this UFO instantaneously disappeared—it didn’t just fade out, or shoot away at high speed, it just vanished in an instant—he didn’t know who to report this sighting to (and apparently realized that to do so was not a career enhancing move), but the group did create a Powerpoint detailing their sighting.
Sometime later, he reported this sighting, including forwarding the Powerpoint, to AARO, and his experience was that neither he nor it were treated seriously, and after some months without reply, AARO totally dismissed his very detailed sighting as just a “balloon.”
He then reported it to the FBI, which he said has taken his report very seriously.*
• See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74ud-5Ld48Y
Dunkirk is the only Nolan movie I have made it all the way through and haven’t tried any of his since.
FYI, for those who didn’t click to watch Prof. Masson’s YT video, his talk is not about the movie. It is only about the book, and Homer as educator, with rich reference to Plato’s Republic and other ancient Greek admirers of Homer. It’s worth watching. (Note the copy of Lattimore’s translation on display—yay, Lattimore!!)
“A system where it’s hard to get anything done has its advantages.”
The problem is that the left has managed to get a lot done over the last 30-60 years (including making our elections a joke). What seems hard, apparently, is to get anything undone. It’s the old ratchet effect.
Thanks, Jim Melcher, for suggesting I watch the video. I learned things.
Jim Melcher:
Re Lattimore, good on you for mentioning him. I have long been an advocate of Lattimore’s translations of Homer, over and above all others.
I like Lattimore’s translations of the New Testament gospels.
Literal renderings of the original into plain English. Easy to read and understand.
(I don’t know which manuscripts he used, however.)
AesopSpouse reported to me that Ben Shapiro liked the Nolan movie, taking it “on its own terms,” as it were, and not criticizing it because it differs from the original epic and traditional interpretations. IOW don’t overthink the entertainment value.
He listened to Ben’s video, so here is one post that links to it.
https://variety.com/2026/film/news/ben-shapiro-the-odyssey-masterpiece-christopher-nolan-1236816164/
making one wonder whether a sequel was already in the works
There were sequels, but they have been lost … Checks with Grok. The “Telegony” was the sequel, and last book in the epic cycle. There were eight stories in the cycle, but only the two by Homer have survived intact. The “Telegony” sounds extremely weird, Telegonus was Odysseus son by Circe, and the story ends:
Realizing what he has done, Telegonus takes Odysseus’ body, Penelope, and Telemachus back to Circe’s island. Circe makes them immortal; Telegonus marries Penelope, and Telemachus marries Circe.
Take that, Nolan. And people complain about a black Helen and trans Sinon.
Snow on Pine,
see standing lenticular cloud
I continued the conversation with Grok:
Ha — exactly. Bad sequels are an ancient art form.
The Telegony is peak “we need to keep the franchise going even though the story was already perfect” energy. Homer’s Odyssey ends with this hard-won, messy, deeply human homecoming — justice, recognition, the scar, the bed, the dog dying of joy. Then the Telegony rolls in like a studio note:
“What if Odysseus has another secret son?”
“What if that son accidentally kills him with a stingray spear?”
“What if everyone just… gets married to each other’s moms and becomes immortal?”
It’s the mythological equivalent of a superhero movie that ends the trilogy on a perfect note… and then the next one opens with “Actually, there’s a multiverse twin and also the dog is back as a cyborg.”
The whole Epic Cycle is full of that energy. Some of the lost poems sound solid (the Aethiopis with Penthesilea and Memnon is genuinely cool), but others feel like pure expansion-pack material written to fill gaps and keep the bards employed. The ancients themselves kind of knew it — later critics (Aristotle, the Alexandrians) already ranked Homer way above the cyclic poets and treated the rest as secondary, sometimes trashy, continuations.
If you would like to read a sci-fi version of The OdysseySpace Chantey by that arch-conservative fabulist, the great R. A. Lafferty. An excerpt:
The war was finished. It had lasted ten equivalent years and taken ten million lives. Thus it was neither of long duration nor of serious attrition. It hadn’t any great significance; it was not intended to have. It did not prove a point, since all points had long ago been proved. What it did, perhaps, was to emphasize an aspect, sharpen a concept, underline a trend.
On the whole it was a successful operation. Economically and ecologically it was of healthy effect, and who should grumble?
And, after wars, men go home. No, no, men start for home. It’s not the same.
There were six of them there, Captains of hornets, those small craft that could go anywhere, six of them mustered out with their crews and with travel orders optional. And there wasn’t an ordinary man among them. They were six full crews of the saltiest, most sulfurous men who could be combed out of the skies.
Roadstrum, one of the Captains, was as plain a man as ever lived, and now he spoke out plainly:
“I would say let us go directly home. We were boys when this began, and we are not boys now. We should go home, but I could be talked into something else.
“Dammit, I said I could be talked into something else!”
“A day or two on Lotophage might be worth it,” said Captain Puckett. “We’ll never be this close to it again and there must be something behind all those stories of the soft life there. They say it is Fiddler’s Green and Theleme rolled together. They say that it may be Maybe Jones City itself. If we don’t like it we can leave at any time.”
Thanks Charles.
Fascinating stuff.
(Do they all break out in song at the end?
Pour libations to the gods, no doubt…)
John Galt III:
Yes, I wrote something to that effect the other day, in this post:
“…the dog dying of joy….”
Indeed, the very essence of loyalty and love…
OTOH it appears that the “Don’t worry, be happy” crowd might have to tone it down a bit:
“Too Much Happiness Sent A Woman To The Emergency Room In an Incredibly Rare Case”—
https://www.sciencealert.com/rare-case-report-reveals-how-extreme-happiness-triggered-a-life-threatening-heart-event
H/T Instapundit.
That women watched Nolan’s ,” Odyssey”!
Amazing dog, master gone for 20 years and still alive. Eyeroll.
Re: lenticular clouds and Mt Rainier
Copilot
Why they may mean rain in 24 hours:
Because the conditions that produce lenticular clouds — especially the “wet layer” sandwiched between drier layers — are often part of a moist, unstable atmosphere ahead of a storm system KOMO+1. In the Pacific Northwest, such clouds are a local indicator that rain or snow is likely within a day or so, as the same atmospheric setup that creates them is also the setup for precipitation KOMO+1
Important caveat:
While they are a useful local sign, they are not a guaranteed predictor. Some rare cases, like the Dec. 12, 2017 event, saw lenticular clouds form without immediate rain, instead marking the clearing of a weak system KOMO. For accurate forecasts, always check updated weather models and local forecasts.
Bottom line:
A lenticular cloud over Mt. Rainier is a visual clue that the atmosphere is moist and unstable, and in most cases it suggests rain or snow within 24 hours. But it’s best to treat it as a supporting indicator, not a sole forecast tool.
Regarding “the franchise”, would this mean that Hesiod wrote a prequel (of sorts)?
Or was that part of a different series altogether…?
“Lo, how the mighty have fallen.”
Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut–which I believe used to have a good academic reputation– is reportedly advertising that for Spring 2027 it will offer an Anthropology class on “Unsettling the “White Gaze,” designed to undermine “white supremacy and racial capitalism,” to be taught by assistant professor Nadja- Eisenberg-Guyot, who describes herself as a “white, disabled, trans anthropologist whose work focuses on how criminalized people who use drugs envision and experiment with abolitionist horizons of transformation, healing, self-determination, and solidarity beyond incarceration and forced-cure.”*
This is the kind of crap they are teaching your kids, and making you pay a fortune for it.
* See https://www.campusreform.org/article/trinity-college-course-will-teach-students-unsettle-white-gaze/30271
crasey–One of the specific questions which was posed to Best was, whether this could have been a cloud, to which he immediately answered “no.”
Just asking, but are clouds composed of hexagonal panels?
Look at Best’s long list of increasingly responsible positions and combat deployments, and decide if such a seasoned, trained professional intelligence agent and observer, as well as four other intelligence agents and observers, could all have seen a cloud, and misidentified it to the extent that they–each one of them–thought it was actually a structured craft, made up of hexagonal panels?
Apparently there were a number of epics/epic traditions. Titanomachy caught my eye, I suggested it would make a great movie. Grok comments:
Hell yeah it would.
Forget another superhero multiverse — give me a full-budget Titanomachy.
Open cold on the black pit of Tartarus. Cronus swallowing his kids one by one. Rhea’s desperate switch with the stone. Then cut to Zeus growing up in secret on Crete, eyes already glowing with that “I’m going to kill my dad” energy.
Second act is pure geopolitical god-war:
Olympians scrambling for allies
Bribing the Cyclopes for the thunderbolt, trident, and helmet of darkness
The Hundred-Handers finally let out of their cage, cracking their necks like “finally”
Entire mountains getting thrown like spears
Oceanus trying to stay neutral and failing
Prometheus already side-eyeing the whole thing
And yes — at the perfect moment, some lesser god or panicked Titan yells it:
“Release the Kraken!”
Except this time it’s not a CGI octopus. It’s whatever primordial sea-horror the Titans actually had locked up. Something that makes the Clash of the Titans version look like a rubber toy.
Christopher Nolan could shoot it like Dunkirk mixed with Interstellar — practical god-sized sets, IMAX mountains cracking, Hans Zimmer making the earth scream. Or just hand it to the madmen who did Godzilla Minus One and let them go feral.
Ten-year war. Family betrayal. Cosmic stakes. Practical effects. No quippy banter.
I’d pay double for the IMAX ticket.
crasey–If this was ol ‘ gap-toothed uncle Earl, sittin’ on his back porch and lookin’ out over the back pasture, with his Mason jar half emptied, by now, of Shine, that would be one thing.
But, this wasn’t that situation, nor that kind of observers.
“Oh Brother Where art Thou” is supposed to be loosely based on “The Odyssey”. Very clever, and humorous, movie. George Clooney really shines( I hate to say) and is a perfect Odysseus.
Neo, while I’m liking Vance less and less these days, I do think he’s bright, and I doubt seriously he’d tank his political career going 3rd party with Tucker. It would not be possible for him to win, and he’d become anathema to MAGA and the rest of the main body of the GOP. He’d be another Liz Cheney.
RE: Trinity College
Many decades ago, I was interviewing for a position as an Academic Librarian at a small Liberal Arts college–not Trinity College–which had a very good academic reputation, but was also, as I experienced, decidedly Left in orientation.
My interviewers informed me that, as one of their Librarians, I would not only be responsible for their student’s research and intellectual education, but also expected to be responsible for fostering their student’s “social and emotional development” i.e in addition to my services as a Librarian, they also wanted me to play the role of social worker and of psychological counselor, which I politely declined to become.
Repeat due eff up that put me in moderation due to accidentally deleting the last e in my handle
My view is if the gooberment thought ETs were real, they would use that to put us in a totalitarian Alien Menace social control posture. ETs are an existential threat to earth and definitely an existential threat to government.
Entering our system let alone our atmosphere without permission or communication is a hostile act.
The COBI Boeing B-29 is announced on the EU site.
https://cobi.eu/product/boeing-b-29-superfortress,14371
Officially licensed product of The Boeing Company.
bill:
I definitely understand your point. But I can nevertheless see him doing it under the circumstances I described.
Tucker’s goal is to split MAGA and win over a very significant percentage to his side. He has already made some progress towards that goal, although I don’t know how much progress. His following tends to be young and male.
I believe that Vance would like to be the GOP candidate in 2028. But if that doesn’t happen – if he is defeated by someone like Rubio in the primaries – he might see that his path to a GOP nomination is closed. Then he might indeed be inclined to split the party and cast his lot with the Tucker wing. He is the politician best positioned to do that.
Chases Eagles–There is already competition between the views that any NHIs would be our benign “space brothers,” or that they pose a threat–possibly an existential threat–to us Humans, or that, alternatively, they are likely just not that interested in us Humans, and, then, there is Dr. Steven Greer’s contention, that some faction in our government is setting up such an alien threat/invasion scenario by carrying out phony Abductions and performing cattle mutilations, or Jacques Vallee’s conclusion that these NHI’s actions form a “control mechanism,” one designed to create a “mythology,” to influence the deep seated thinking of the Human race (Jung’s “Collective Unconscious?), and to push our thinking (and actions?) in a particular direction.
As far as I can see, it is very likely–I’d say 100% guaranteed–that official government acknowledgment (or convincing Catastrophic Disclosure) of the presence of NHIs on our planet, and their interacting with the Human race, would give rise to a comprehensive array of very destabilizing effects and, that, if they want to survive, the current political, economic, intellectual, and religious orders will have to be very nimble footed, indeed, and, somehow, become the reeds which bend with the wind.
Chases Eagles-
P.S.–I notice that a lot of the thinking and the discussions about this subject do not proceed from the fundamental idea that Earth is our planet, and that we Humans have the absolute right (if we have the power to enforce it) to determine what any and all Alien entities do in and around our planet, and what they can and cannot do in their interactions with Human beings, and with our various institutions, resources, and possessions.
ET could wipe us out entirely by accident. They would be dangerous. That is one thing that offended me about Star Trek. We are supposedly enlightened and would be very leery of direct interaction with alien species for both of our sakes.
Wow!
At the very least it would make a spectacular genre of video games…and no doubt turn on more of our under-motivated youth to the Classics. Perhaps…though our clerical leaders might have second thoughts—look at their conniption fits when Harry Potter materialized…”
Anyway, thanks much again (though I’m a guy of simpler tastes—“Bambi Meets Godzilla” is more my speed and far more suited to my attention span).
“…he [Vance] might see that his path to a GOP nomination is closed. Then he might indeed be inclined to split the party and cast his lot with the Tucker wing.”– Neo
I don’t think Vance would do that. While his position towards Israel seems to be more classic client state where Israel defers to US policy, I don’t think it would lead to splitting the party which would benefit the Democrat Socialists.
I think he’s intelligent enough to recognize that fully throwing in with the anit-Israel faction (I don’t think it rises to a wing) wouldn’t lead to a Republican nomination, and we all know how third party candidates fare in our political system.
Davemay:
Which is the best snippet of the story in
The Cyclops, his downfall, and “Oh, death.”
The Sirens (certainly alluring).
And of course the whole soundtrack!
A movie of many wonders.
Brian E:
I’m not saying he would do it; I’m saying I can imagine that he might. I hope you’re right and you certainly may be.
Snow on Pine,
A C-5 is 248 ft long and 223 ft wide – a bit smaller than the object in question but reasonably close. The parking lot for the Cheyenne Mountain Complex is about halfway up the mountain which (assuming they were walking in from parking) would place the object about 5000 ft away. The panels on a C-5 would not be easily identifiable from that distance. The first time you see a standing lenticular cloud it seems unnatural and even otherworldly – I know it did to me. Knowledgeable observers who are confident in what they’ve seen often describe details that wouldn’t be normally visible from the distance and angle of observation. Does that mean it wasn’t was what they think it was? Of course not, but it doesn’t mean it was either. Standing lenticular clouds have been routinely reported as UFO’s by lots of people. BTW, they dissipate as rapidly as they form.
The video about Homer’s The Odyssey was very informative and interesting a marked contrast to a podcast about Nolan’s Odyssey “Instant Classics” Part One.
Part One is supposed to be about the source, Homer’s The Odyssey, but nope, only slightly and more about feminist imaginations.
I did not listen to the other podcasts in the series which cover the Nolan film.