1065
Westminster Abbey is consecrated.
1867
United States claims Midway Atoll, the first territory annexed outside Continental limits.
1895
Wilhelm Röntgen publishes a paper detailing his discovery of a new type of radiation, which later will be known as x-rays.
1908
A magnitude 7.2 earthquake rocks Messina, Sicily killing over 75,000.
***
There is hardly any issue today more fateful than the questison of whether modern science is the friend of politics and morality, as Hume says, or the enemy, as Rousseau says.--Mansfield
***
Brigitte Bardot died.
***
Wind energy is the most expensive energy source, is almost entirely foreign-made, is five times more expensive than American gas, and interferes with commercial and military radar. Whose idea was this?
***
Internal Revenue Code Section 7217—makes it a criminal offense for the president or other executive branch officials to request, direct, or influence the IRS to conduct or terminate an audit or investigation of a particular taxpayer for political or retaliatory reasons.
If such actions go unquestioned, it signals that the president is not bound by the same rules as everyone else.
***
In today's gospel, Joseph is warned by an angel in a dream that the jealous Herod is hunting the newborn child to kill him. The family is urged to flee to Egypt, where they stay until Herod's death.
***
There is hardly any issue today more fateful than the questison of whether modern science is the friend of politics and morality, as Hume says, or the enemy, as Rousseau says.--Mansfield
***
Brigitte Bardot died.
***
Wind energy is the most expensive energy source, is almost entirely foreign-made, is five times more expensive than American gas, and interferes with commercial and military radar. Whose idea was this?
***
Internal Revenue Code Section 7217—makes it a criminal offense for the president or other executive branch officials to request, direct, or influence the IRS to conduct or terminate an audit or investigation of a particular taxpayer for political or retaliatory reasons.
If such actions go unquestioned, it signals that the president is not bound by the same rules as everyone else.
***
Gospel/Flight to Egypt
In today's gospel, Joseph is warned by an angel in a dream that the jealous Herod is hunting the newborn child to kill him. The family is urged to flee to Egypt, where they stay until Herod's death.
Mathew describes what they leave behind:
Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying:
“A voice was heard in Ramah,
Lamentation, weeping, and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children,
Refusing to be comforted,
Because they are no more.”
Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying:
“A voice was heard in Ramah,
Lamentation, weeping, and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children,
Refusing to be comforted,
Because they are no more.”
It does not appear much in literature.
Shakespeare uses it when the great and Christian King Henry demands the surrender of Harfleur and assures its defenders that the horrors of war will come upon them if they do not relent:
"Your naked infants spitted upon pikes
Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confused
Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry
At Herod’s bloody-hunting slaughtermen." (Act 3, Scene 3, lines 38–41)
Strangely, the slaughter of innocents has become a horrifyingly modern event, a reliable tool of lunatics and death cult devotees who search for meaning in vulnerable, meaningless victims.
Shakespeare uses it when the great and Christian King Henry demands the surrender of Harfleur and assures its defenders that the horrors of war will come upon them if they do not relent:
"Your naked infants spitted upon pikes
Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confused
Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry
At Herod’s bloody-hunting slaughtermen." (Act 3, Scene 3, lines 38–41)
Strangely, the slaughter of innocents has become a horrifyingly modern event, a reliable tool of lunatics and death cult devotees who search for meaning in vulnerable, meaningless victims.
Unlike Herod's, theirs is murder without ambition or purpose, that is, inhuman.
No comments:
Post a Comment