The Hall of Fire

axordil wrote:What is tolerable--even admirable--for an individual warrior is far too rash and risky for a lord. That's the conundrum at the heart of Beowulf

And what Tolkien explored in his essay on Maldon and ofermod.

Cynical? Just realistic. Hamas has yet to learn to be a government- it remains a hate group. They also decorate their school walls with portraits of "martyrs" (read suicide bombers), and murals of heroic Arab children bayoneting Jews.

By their fruits shall ye know them......

That's true whether it started under colonial occupation or only with corporate exploitation. But that type of corruption- bribery etc by self-interested colonialists or corporations- is only the tip of the corruption iceberg. The underwater 90% is local rulers- many of them barely more than brigan...

Voronwë: Take a look at the toxic waste dump the old Soviet Bloc made of itself. Look at the environmental horrors going on in China. Look at that ultimate monument to calamitous hubris in the face of Mother Nature, the Aswan High Dam. And look at the literal junkyard states of Cuba and North Korea....

Speaking as a Virginian (although I attended The University, not the pretender), I can pretty confidently predict that such racial backlash as there is will be fairly subdued, and pretty much confined to the established hardcore bigot community. The reason? Racist stereotyping. Here (as with much of...

Yup- precisely why the deer population is exploding here. We killed off the wolves and cougars.

Cards on the table first: I'm mostly pro-choice ('mostly' because I disagree with killing the kid minutes before the contractions start). But abortion-rights supporters had better wake up to what's going to be a very, very relevant fact in coming terms of the Supreme Court: Blackmun's Roe opinion, v...

Well, detailing policy during a campaign is *generally* unwise- but Obama is I think an exceptional case, bacause he has no track record. He's a blank slate, experience-wise. Many project onto that slate their own hopes and desires, and I expect a few their fears: personally I don't want to project ...

But at least there may be a realization that the bloodshed was stupid and pointless, and produced nothing but more bloodshed.

The ultimate poitical arrangement is far less important than the resolve to reach it by throwing harsh language at each other rather than bombs.[/i]

Maybe where we disagree is this: I would expect a candidate to decide according to what he thinks is best, not according to what his constituency wants. If a candidate does that, he/she is failing to follow the basic tenets of democracy, at least in the USA. A candidate is bound to follow the will ...

Back to Life of Brian-- REG: Right. You're in. Listen. The only people we hate more than the Romans are the f*****g Judean People's Front. P.F.J.: Yeah... JUDITH: Splitters. P.F.J.: Splitters... FRANCIS: And the Judean Popular People's Front. P.F.J.: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Splitters. Splitters... LORETTA: ...

To me, "Political Correctness" is a term which has drifted far beyond its original rather benign connotations. I first remember it from the late 70's when it was a term Lefties used rather joshingly of their colleagues who made a point of appearing Leftier-than-thou, most obviously in the ...

After all, every pound of 'free range' meat somebody shoots represents one pound less demand on a factory feed lot someplace. Which is more inhumane? Re: deer. I hear you. They have become a bloody plague here in Virginia, which, it is estimated, has a whitetail population today 50% greater than whe...

ToshoftheWuffingas wrote:If you want East Anglia you'll have to hurry. Londoners have grabbed most of it already.

Except for the very substantial percentage of it owned by Cambridge Uni....

We think western- our best estimate right now is the Trent valley in the vicinity of Lichfield- but then, the Western is just a branch of the Northern anyway. GIVE US BACK EAST ANGLIA, you rotters!!! Or not. Not sure what we'd do with it.

As you well know, I am far more partial to the original idea that the mending will occur after the recovery of the Silmarils, the restoration of the Light of the Two Trees, and the reunion of the Blessed Realm with the sundered "bent world" of Arda. For me, this is a far better "fit&...

You realize, Tosh, that we are blood-foes from centuries back?

Wilhelm of the Iclingas

I thought it might be germane to consider the late wrapper-notes Tolkien made on his Atlantis accounts. He listed an Elvish account, a Mannish account, and a blended (Dunedainic) account. The last is plainly the Akallabêth, which was literally blended from the older versions, and which in one place ...