Memorable Collisions

Mankind can hardly be too often reminded, that there was once a man named Socrates, between whom and the legal authorities and public opinion of his time, there took place a memorable collision.

Born in an age and country abounding in individual greatness, this man has been handed down to us by those who best knew both him and the age, as the most virtuous man in it; while we know him as the head and prototype of all subsequent teachers of virtue, the source equally of the lofty inspiration of Plato and the judicious utilitarianism of Aristotle, "i maestri di color che sanno," the two headsprings of ethical as of all other philosophy.

This acknowledged master of all the eminent thinkers who have since lived--whose fame, still growing after more than two thousand years, all but outweighs the whole remainder of the names which make his native city illustrious--was put to death by his countrymen, after a judicial conviction, for impiety and immorality. Impiety, in denying the gods recognized by the State; indeed his accuser asserted (see the "Apologia") that he believed in no gods at all. Immorality, in being, by his doctrines and instructions, a "corrupter of youth." Of these charges the tribunal, there is every ground for believing, honestly found him guilty, and condemned the man who probably of all then born had deserved best of mankind, to be put to death as a criminal.

To pass from this to the only other instance of judicial iniquity, the mention of which, after the condemnation of Socrates, would not be an anti-climax: the event which took place on Calvary rather more than eighteen hundred years ago. The man who left on the memory of those who witnessed his life and conversation, such an impression of his moral grandeur, that eighteen subsequent centuries have done homage to him as the Almighty in person, was ignominiously put to death, as what? As a blasphemer. Men did not merely mistake their benefactor; they mistook him for the exact contrary of what he was, and treated him as that prodigy of impiety, which they themselves are now held to be, for their treatment of him.

(John Stuart Mill, On Liberty)

The Recipient's Way

The Scholastics used to say: Quidquid recipitur, recipitur per modum recipientis -- whatever is received is received in the recipient's way.

Yep.

Anglicanism

The Anglican Church seems the Wonder Emporium of Mr Magorium...

Not a good thing, in my opinion.

And, moreover, who is Mr Magorium?

Moral Obligation

Thomas Kunkel:

I believe all of us are endowed with certain qualities, and that we in turn have a moral obligation to make the most of those, as often as possible in the service of others. I went into journalism for a lot of reasons, but mostly because I believed it helps people. I still believe that. I always will.

[AJR]

Surgery

Obviously journalism is not brain surgery - it's harder, according to Chip Scanlan.

Hence the reason why sometimes newsrooms look like surgery rooms...

Blood and Tears

We shed a lot of blood for this country. We are not going to give up our country for a mere X on a ballot. How can a ballpoint pen fight with a gun?

(President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, as quoted by the state-run Herald newspaper)

[IHT]

Gotham City

The Dark Knight...

So Batman is coming back...

R Kelly's Gotham City, however, is still the best:

A city of justice, a city of love
A city of peace for everyone of us
We all need it, can't live without it
Gotham City, oh yeah...

The Good Old Banjo

If you ask the average person where they think the five-string banjo originated, the chances are that they would say it came from Kentucky or North Carolina. The truth is that the banjo was originally an African instrument... So the question that comes to mind is why this African instrument has been assigned to the United States. To put it another way, when did black become white?

(Banjoist Dick Weissman, from the liner notes of Otis Taylor's Recapturing The Banjo album)

Pregnant 'Man'

Yesterday, the News Of The World published pictures of the world's first pregnant "man," Thomas Beatie, 34 - captured just four weeks from the birth of his baby girl.

Mr Beatie, of Bend, Oregon, was born a woman but had breast surgery to remove glands and flatten his chest 10 years ago.

Last year he became pregnant using donor sperm.

Oh my gosh!

Radio Hope

I have a piece in Italian about Radio Espoir, Radio Hope in French, a Catholic radio station in Ivory Coast.

Orthodox Heresy

I did try to found a heresy of my own; and when I had put the last touches to it, I discovered that it was orthodoxy.

(GK Chesterton, Orthodoxy)

Benedict the Reformer

re·form v [I, Tn] become or make better by removing or putting right faults, errors, etc.

Therefore Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) is a reformer.