1729 Jonathan Swift

We will now take up a little study of “Edmund Burke: the First Conservative” by Jesse Norman (2013). When I first heard of the book, it struck me as a good opportunity to gain a little familiarity with the conservative icon. And I am happy to be confirmed in the idea that he is no American Republican. Conservatism really can mean more than pursuing the narrowest self-serving greed.

Perhaps his being an Irishman who was familiar with the hardships of the Irish in the 18th century helped to establish in him a sensitivity for the needs and interests of the poor and the weak. Our first excerpt is actually a quote from Jonathan Swift. Mr. Norman uses it to establish in the reader’s mind just how hard the times were in Burke’s Ireland.

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I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout.... Those who are more thrifty (as I must confess the times require) may flay the carcass; the skin of which artificially dressed will make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen.

-- “A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public” by Anonymous (Jonathan Swift)

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Morning Walk

Took my walk.

Surprised and happy to see Grey Socks. Been a long time. So friendly.

There seem to be a lot fewer ducks. The water looked a little cleaner. At first, I thought they might have treated the water, but it occurred to me that our little rains probably did it.

Hamlet (3,4) Mother and Son

As Hamlets stares after the Ghost’s departure, Gertrude immediately confronts him about his apparent delusions. She says:

This is the very coinage of your brain:
This bodiless creation that ecstasy
Is very cunning in.

Hamlet must feel frustrated. Here he has come to read her the riot act, and now he finds that his sanity is in serious question. He was playing the antic and acting like his senses are scattered, but now he finds that his act is too well believed, especially since she could not see the ghost that he was talking with. He tries to answer his mother forcefully and bring her back to her supposed sins:

Ecstasy!
My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time,
And makes as healthful music: it is not madness
That I have utter'd: bring me to the test,
And I the matter will re-word; which madness
Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace,
Lay not that mattering unction to your soul,
That not your trespass, but my madness speaks:
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place,
Whilst rank corruption, mining all within,
Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven;
Repent what's past; avoid what is to come;
And do not spread the compost on the weeds,
To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue;
For in the fatness of these pursy times
Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg,
Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good.

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Home Life

Kay is coming over. I think it has been a whole two weeks since we have had an overnight guest. So, I probably shouldn't be too ornery, but I guess I have gotten a little spoiled. And, after all, I have had only one night in my bed, after having to keep the cats inside for the better part of a week on account of that weather system. But it is not terrible and life goes on.

Obama Speaks Out On the Zimmerman Verdict

President Obama surprises us today by addressing the White House press conference personally, rather than leaving it to the routine spokesperson. He gave us some rather extensive remarks in response to the George Zimmerman trial, who was exonerated for shooting down and killing a seventeen-year-old black teenage male, Trayvon Martin. As commentators pointed out afterward, this was the first time that we felt the significance of having our first black president. He made his race felt, the tortured history of it, the long struggle that continues today.

Zimmerman is a wannabe cop who liked to carry out his fantasies in active pursuit of the neighborhood watch program. He was following the black teenager, and there was an altercation. We do not really know much about this fight since only Zimmerman came out of it alive He was packing a gun under Florida's liberal conceal-carry laws, and he won at court by claiming self-defense. Well, Trayvon Martin was wearing a hoodie, and did I mention that he was black? It has been a big national controversy.

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Daily Fun

Random Pictures

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