It’s not particularly easy to write a follow-up to Liquamen II. For one, it’s a very emotive issue, and it would seemingly be inappropriate to follow it with some of the usual cynical sarcasm found in the Morning Coffee. Most importantly, though, is the fact that the very act of publishing this edition moves Sgt. Carmelo Rodriguez’s story off the front page of the MC. Despite this, the show must go on, and I hope that people will be interested in what we post here and will then check past editions.
I will tell you that while the comments on and responses about the story directly to me cannot be called voluminous by any means, the site has had more visitors than ever before. This is a good thing. Hopefully, the majority of those who visited will write their representatives.
So with that, let’s keep it light today.
Word of the Day: Temararious (adjective): Recklessly or presumptuously daring; rash.
On This Day in History: Abraham Lincoln makes a speech in New York City that is thought to be largely responsible for his election (1860). I’m guessing his message was not “Change we can believe in.” The Nineteenth Amendment, which allows women the right to vote, is challenged and this challenge is rejected by the Supreme Court (1922). Sit-down strikes, used by the Civil Rights Movement, are outlawed (1939). Carbon-14 is discovered by Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben (1940). The 22nd Amendment is ratified, limiting Presidents to two terms (1951). Perhaps it’s time to amend the Constitution for the 28th time, limiting the number of terms our Senators and Representatives are able to serve.
Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus, also known as Constantine I or Constantine the Great, was born in 272 CE. Constantine is an important historical figure. He is best known for being the first Christian Roman Emperor, having allegedly seen the Cross in the sky just before his fight against Maxentius in the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 306. Exactly what happened prior to this battle is much disputed. What isn’t disputed is his official policy of religious tolerations, particularly of Christianity, issued in 313 in the Edict of Milan, although this wasn’t the first such edict issued by an Emperor. While the issue of his conversion to Christianity is also the subject of much debate, he was clearly a strong advocate of Christianity, whatever his intentions in that advocacy. In 325, he called for the Council of Nicaea, which dealt with the heresy of Arianism and established church doctrine. In this way, Constantine, possibly a pagan until his death bed (or a pagan forever), greatly shaped Christianity, and his policies impact it even today. Also remember that he founded Constantinople, which would be a great city and carry on Roman greatness long after Rome fell in 476. Constantinople is presently called Istanbul, by the Turks.
First Equirria, celebrating the Roman god of war, Mars, was held today. Second Equirria was held on 14 March. Priests held rites purifying the army, and the city held horse races. Rome geared up for spring, the season for war.
1 comment:
Obama comment's comment, "Hope in the face of difficulty, hope in the face of uncertainty, the audacity of hope. In the end, that is God’s greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation, a belief in things not seen, a belief that there are better days ahead." demonstrates a love of rhetoric for rhetoric's sake. The proper function of rhetoric, as Aristotle showed, is to convince people of truth. It uses prettily formed thoughts as its main tool of persuasion, but it oughtn't to use ornamental language for its own sake. To portray the end of rhetoric as persuasion is to pervert the art, just as if one were to say that the point of painting was to move a paintbrush.
As to “God’s greatest gift”, this characterization disingenuously slights his power to bring about what hope hopes for, and impugns his statements in divine scripture. Sed contra, sancta scriptura dicit “faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” But if love is the greatest of the three, then hope is inferior to love; therefore hope is not greater than love, and ipso facto not God’s greatest gift to us. Quid erat demonstrado (QED [thus is it demonstrated]).
Moreover, Paul of Tarsus explains “when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.”
Like rhetoric, hope is not an end in itself. Hope is for something better than hope, one hopes for something, one doesn’t hope for hope, at least, not usually. The achievement, the end, the gaining of hope, that is a greater thing than hope itself. I hope to be out of debt. Is it better to continue to hope, or achieve, a state of being debtless? Further, once you obtain the goal of your hope, hope no longer exists, but rather ownership.
"For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?"
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