Vir Prudens Non Contra Ventum Mingit

In theory, the modern university operates under the quodlibet principle that it is free to discuss and inquire into what (quod) it pleases (libet). Within its ivied walls, it would have us believe, there are no sacred cows and everything is fair game. In reality, however, the motto of every modern university is vir prudens non contra ventum mingit, which is the erudite way to say that a wise man does not piss into the wind.

Postmodern “Helicopter Rides”

Many on the secular alt-right have misgivings about an association with the orthosphere, broadly defined. Many have more than misgivings. And to be honest, the misgivings run both ways.

Everything Goes Sour in its Own Way

I just finished reading Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory. I may be entitled to boast of re-reading, since I had the copy on my shelf and was once a big Greene buff; but since the story sparked no smiles of recollection, I’m inclined to think that I am not.

Son of Locksley Update

Some weeks back we published a guest post by Son of Locksley, in which he explained why he couldn’t (and still can’t) speak German. His short and unsurprising answer, as you may recall, was that an SJW was standing in front of the blackboard.

We are Marcomanni

In the Marcomannic Wars of the Second Century A.D., the Roman Empire struggled to hold its Danubian frontier against restless German and Sarmatian tribes centered in the Hyrcannian Forest to the north of the river. That the Rome response was listless and ineffective will not surprise those who have read the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, who was emperor at the time. Although the name Marcomanni is often identified with one particular tribe centered in what is now Bohemia, and more particularly on the city of Budweis (home of Budweiser beer), I follow the authors who take marcomanni as a generic word denoting men of the border or frontiersmen.  It is a compound of the German “mark” (boundary) and “manni” (men). Among the Anglo Saxons the name “mark men” was given to those who dwelt in the border country, or “debatable land,” between England and Scotland. Their leaders were called marcher lords.

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We are marcomanni,

Mark men all are we;

Our home is the debated land;

Here sleeps hostility!

Boomer Guide to Gen-Z Slang

Red Pill: Hip.  “He’s red-pilled” = “He’s hip”

Mohammedan, not “Muslim”

Anyone who reads old books knows that Mohammedanism was until quite recently our preferred name for the Arab religion. Non-Mohammedans of course knew that Mohammedans called their religion Islam, and that they called themselves Moslems, but they rightly eschewed these terms because they were question begging.

“Infinite Dignity” is Fatuous Grandiloquence

In the homily about which I recently complained, Pope Francis was quoted as affirming “the infinite dignity of every human being.”  There is, I will grant, a kernel of theological truth in this expression, but because this kernel is encased by a shell of fatuous grandiloquence, this truth is hard to see. 

The Other Side of the Mountain

Until very recently, the prefixes “cis” and “trans” were mostly used as terms of art in geography.  The most common usage was Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul (or Europe).  The former meant “on this side” of the Alps (from the viewpoint of Rome), the later “on the other side.”  Transylvania is another very well-known geographical construction of this sort; it means, of course, the land “beyond the woods.” 

Forgeries of Spoilage

When demand exceeds supply, there will be forgeries.  Paintings by Rembrandt are the locus classicus of this phenomenon, but a list of examples would be long and various.  If you’ve ever been disappointed by a “fine dining experience” or a “room with a view of the ocean,” it’s likely because what you got wasn’t really fine, or a view, but rather some crummy forgery or facsimile of the same.