Eucatastrophy Reader: 2009 Vox 2009-12-04T19:58:39Z vtpanther http://phil159.vox.com/?_c=feed-atom tag:vox.com,2006:6p00d4144d4df23c7f/ eucatastrophe n. eucatastrophic [ < Gr. eu, "good" and catastrophe Coined by JRR Tolkien.] 1. (in a narrative) The event that shifts the balance in favor of the protagonist when all seems lost. 2. A happy ending. "He was a prodigious noticer" tag:vox.com,2009-12-04:asset-6a00d4144d4df23c7f0123f18470b4860f 2009-12-04T19:58:39Z 2009-12-04T19:58:39Z vtpanther http://phil159.vox.com/?_c=feed-atom

Mark Twain - A Film Directed by Ken Burns

“Great books are like wine. My books are like water,” Mark Twain once said. But Mark Twain said a lot of things worth remembering. I just finished the PBS Documentary on Twain’s life. I found myself wishing I had watched it backwards as it i...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

]]> "All right, then, I'll go to hell" tag:vox.com,2009-12-04:asset-6a00d4144d4df23c7f0123f1843c38860f 2009-12-04T06:39:10Z 2009-12-04T06:42:04Z vtpanther http://phil159.vox.com/?_c=feed-atom

Unborn in the USA

Confession: I teach a college Ethics class. Thus far in the course, we have discussed ethical theories that can help us process difficult ethical decisions in our lives. But we have shied away from the debate of contentious issues. My own hope ...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

]]> "Our World isn’t all there is, Rivka." tag:vox.com,2009-12-03:asset-6a00d4144d4df23c7f0123f183ded2860f 2009-12-03T06:49:19Z 2009-12-03T06:49:19Z vtpanther http://phil159.vox.com/?_c=feed-atom

Kadosh

Kadosh is one of those movies I am tempted not to blog about. It is an Israeli movie in which secular Israeli actors play Orthodox Jewish characters. Amos Gitai has chosen to focus on the experience of women in two somewhat irregular but nev...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

]]> "A Convention of Moral Lunatics" (1858) tag:vox.com,2009-12-02:asset-6a00d4144d4df23c7f01240b8000e8860e 2009-12-02T02:05:25Z 2009-12-06T04:17:04Z vtpanther http://phil159.vox.com/?_c=feed-atom

RutlandFreeConvention

"A Convention of Moral Lunatics": The Rutland, Vermont, Free Convention of 1858. READ HERE. Just one more reason why I love my State. It is only 1858 and it is already attracting oddballs like bees to honey. And if you read the article, you see ...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

]]> Existentialism comes to Valhalla. tag:vox.com,2009-12-01:asset-6a00d4144d4df23c7f0123ddc4645a860b 2009-12-01T05:38:13Z 2009-12-01T05:38:13Z vtpanther http://phil159.vox.com/?_c=feed-atom

The Bothersome Man

What I really lack is to be clear in my mind what I am to do, not what I am to know, except in so far as a certain knowledge must precede every action. The thing is to understand myself, to see what God really wishes me to do: the thing is to ...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

]]> "When did the maw of Avarice gape wider?" tag:vox.com,2009-11-30:asset-6a00d4144d4df23c7f0123f182c200860f 2009-11-30T05:36:37Z 2009-12-01T05:39:26Z vtpanther http://phil159.vox.com/?_c=feed-atom

Frontline: Breaking the Bank

I just watched FRONTLINE'S Breaking the Bank. I am not sure what to say that has not already been said really. Really. It is like watching Rome burn. Why talk about it? I think I will just share some lines from Juvenal's Satires, descriptions of ...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

]]> The Trap tag:vox.com,2009-11-29:asset-6a00d4144d4df23c7f01240b7effce860e 2009-11-29T07:27:31Z 2009-12-01T05:42:41Z vtpanther http://phil159.vox.com/?_c=feed-atom

The Trap

A few days ago, I dropped in at a blood drive and donated some blood. The man who took it was Serbian. He told me a small part of his story but not all. And I wondered what kind of story lies behind the decision to take one's family and move to an...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

]]> "the only place where the lilies are considered at all" tag:vox.com,2009-11-29:asset-6a00d4144d4df23c7f0123ddd889cf860c 2009-11-29T02:49:28Z 2009-12-01T05:44:14Z vtpanther http://phil159.vox.com/?_c=feed-atom

A Room for Learning: The Making of a School in Vermont

“You have listened long enough. Demonstrate your note.” Seamus Heaney, Station Island My hat is off to Tal Birdsey and the students who made him worth listening to. As a student and teacher of Vermont History and as a person who has tried to v...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

]]> An Argument for Fear-Funding tag:vox.com,2009-11-27:asset-6a00d4144d4df23c7f0123ddebb3f8860d 2009-11-27T15:13:42Z 2009-11-29T17:37:14Z vtpanther http://phil159.vox.com/?_c=feed-atom

7 Deadly Scenarios: A Military Futurist Explores War in the 21st Century

I am so glad that I do not have Andrew Krepinevich’s job. Trained at West Point and 21 years in the military, he spends his life imagining future military conflicts and advocating that we spend lots of money preparing to fight them. If he is no...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

]]> My blog's worst movie to date tag:vox.com,2009-11-23:asset-6a00d4144d4df23c7f01240b7cf898860e 2009-11-23T16:22:38Z 2009-12-01T05:44:56Z vtpanther http://phil159.vox.com/?_c=feed-atom

Synecdoche New York

I cannot believe I used an hour of my BIRTHDAY to watch the rest of this movie. But I did. It is funny how the Rubiks Cubeedness of it challenges me even if its essential morbidity depressed me. Maybe on some subconscious level I have a greater...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

]]>