Tag Archives: politics

Climate, Neighbors, Bogeymen and Responsibility

Last weekend I started re-reading “Laudato si’, on care for our common home,” AKA the “environmental encyclical” and the “Green Encyclical,” by Pope Francis. Calling the 2015 encyclical “green” and “environmental” isn’t mere marketing. But there’s more to “Laudato si’” … Continue reading

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Pax Romana: Augustus to Nero

The Pax Romana had been in progress for eight decades on July 19, A.D. 64. A fire started in a retail district near Rome’s Circus Maximus. It was a windy night. The fire spread. Fast. The Great Fire of Rome … Continue reading

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Queen Elizabeth II of England: Historical Perspective

(From British Ministry of Information, via Chicago History Museum and Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)(Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. (April 1945)) My news feed has been full of the usual stuff: war and rumors of war, … Continue reading

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Marlowe’s “Dr. Faustus,” Freedom, Censorship and Speculation

Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, Sir Francis Bacon and Queen Elizabeth I all lived in England during the late 1500s. An odd lot of history and literature buffs have said that Marlowe, Bacon or someone else wrote Shakespeare’s plays. I suspect … Continue reading

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History, Viewpoints, Narratives and Ancient Rome

(From Giovanni Paolo Panini, via Staatsgalerie, Stutgard/Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)(Giovanni Paolo Panini’s “Ancient Rome” — an 18th century view. (1754-1757)) “…Naiad airs have brought me homeTo the glory that was Greece,And the grandeur that was Rome….”(“To Helen,” Edgar Allen … Continue reading

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