The Freedom Caucus in the House of Representatives has been behaving like Satan in “Paradise Lost.” They would be advised to see what happens to Milton’s anti-hero.
Tag Archives: politics
Satanic Fury from the Freedom Caucus
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Congress, Freedom Caucus, GOP, House of Representatives, John Milton, Paradise Lost Comments closed
Hillary before Judges Like Tolstoy’s Pierre
The Congressional Committee to Investigate Benghazi is like the military tribunal in “War and Peace” that questions Pierre. It is interested only in answers to lead to conviction.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Benghazi, Benghazi investigation, Congress, GOP, Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace Comments closed
Tolstoy and Climate Change Denial
The denial of the citizens of Moscow as Napoleon approaches the city, described by Tolstoy in “War in Peace,” resembles climate change denialism.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged climate change, climate change denialism, Environmentalism, global warming, GOP, Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace Comments closed
The GOP Debate & the Ox-Frog Fable
Last night’s GOP debate often reminded me of the fable of the ox and the frog, with people trying to puff themselves up with hardline positions to impress voters. Here’s a Scott Bates version of the fable.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Fable of theFrog and the Ox", Donald Trump, GOP debate, Jeb Bush, Scott Bates Comments closed
Trump as Frankenstein’s Monster
What is it about Donald Trump that brings out the literary analogies? First a Salon columnist compared him to Odysseus’s Cyclops, then the New Yorker’s John Cassidy saw him as Gulliver, and most recently Rachel Maddow of MSNBC and others have compared him to Frankenstein’s monster. I’ve written about the Cyclops parallel here, but let’s take […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, Frankenstein, GOP, Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift, Mary Shelley Comments closed
Trollope on Conservatives vs. Liberals
Anthony Trollope has wise things to say about the differences between conservatives and liberals in “Prime Minister.”
Trump, Lucille Clifton, & Menstruation
Donald Trump assumed that Fox’s Megyn Kelly was menstruating when she aggressively asked him questions. Aside from his sexism, we should listen to Lucille Clifton, who points out how impressively women function even when they are having their periods.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "wishes for sons", Donald Trump, Lucille Clifton, Megyn Kelly, menstruation, misogyny, Sexism, women's biology Comments closed
Political Commentary’s Most Cited Poem
The Washington Post’s E. J. Dionne has called Yeats’s “The Second Coming” the most cited poem in political commentary. Yeats may set up a false dichotomy between “passionate intensity” and “lack of conviction,” however.