The Hall of Fire

Long time, no see, sf! It's good to see you here.

My guess is that McCain got in because his father and grandfather were high-level officers. But I don't have any information beyond what you have already posted.

I look forward to both your comments here, and discussing Letter 43.

Kennedy's office has been convening a series of meetings on health care, in preparation for his leading an effort to achieve universal health care early in the new administration. That would be a fitting capstone to his remarkable career.

Kennedy leads renewed effort on universal healthcare

vison, here is the passage you are thinking of, from The Laws and Customs of the Eldar , in Morgoth's Ring : After the betrothal it was the part of the betrothed to appoint the time of their wedding, when at least one year had passed. Then at a feast, again shared by the two houses, the marriage was...

First of all, I realized after the fact that I know who the author is. I knew the name sounded familiar, but I didn't place it at first. If you are reading this, Sandra, let me reiterate that I think overall it is a very good essay. Don't think that my criticism of one or two small passages reflects...

Tell her that we pride ourselves at the level of courtesy and respect we treat each other with. That probably won't make any difference, but maybe it will.

I just wrote a fairly long response to your question, vison, and it got et. I'll have to try again some other time.

And again, I don't see it as Obama trying to have both sides of an issue, but rather expressing his views on a complex issue without kowtowing to political interest. He knows he isn't going to win over any "right to life" activists with these comments, and he may alienate some "pro-ch...

vison, why isn't your serious Tolkien scholar friend here?

I hope you'll post your thoughts about Galadriel/Mary in the Shibboleth thread about the essay about women in Tolkien's works.

Well, if you come up with examples that seem to contradict me, by all means bring em up and let's discuss em!

I did come away from reading the Letters with a fairly strong impression that later in his life, Tolkien did become more concerned with fitting Middle-earth into a Christian historical narrative than he had been when he first devised it. Weren't there some changes he began to make, or thought of ma...

Of course, it is not possible to discuss God's creation outside of his creation, since we ourselves are inside his creation (accepting for the sake of the argument, of course, the existence of God). My point is that the theme of death and deathlessness is explicitly about the nature of God's creatio...

I'll have to re-read that part of the essay to properly answer that question, which I will try to do later. But in the meanwhile, let me ask you whether you read the essay, and if so, whether you thought that the parallel that she tries to make betweeen the two romances is meritorious.

Aravar, read the whole letter. Your argument simply makes no sense, particularly in the context of Tolkien writing to Christopher just as he is going off to war. Tolkien isn't talking about any particular political policies, he is talking about the danger of the depersonalization of government, and ...

Can you also be sure that you are not extending your political views to Tolkien? Pretty sure, because I'm not projecting ANY political views on to Tolkien. He was certainly no Socialist (I'll probably discuss a letter in which he critiques socialism at some point), but there simply isn't any reason...

Okay, that's the last time I put in a link from National Review. I should have left out that comment about the National Review ranking Obama the most liberal senator. You linking to the National Review is certainly just as valid as someone else linking to, for instance, the HuffingtonPost. You and ...

Faramond, I think my comments above about same-sex marriage very clearly answer that National Review link (the same magazine, incidentally, that insists on calling Obama the most liberal senator in the U.S. Senate, which very clearly isn't true). Regarding, the housing issue, as both Ax and I have s...

No, you mistake me, Mahima. What I am saying will cost him votes his his strong opposition to the same-sex marriage ban, despite his personal belief that marriage should be between a man and woman. Here is the text of the letter that he sent announcing his opposition to the ban: Dear Friends, Thank ...

I am disappointed that neither candidate has actually come out in favor of gay marriage. I know, there is no way McCain would. The best I can say for him is that he doesn't support an amendment to the Constitution banning gay marriage, last I heard. I think Obama secretly is in favor of gay marriag...