Previous William Thomas Sherman Info Page postings, quotes, observations, etc.
"The Monkees combined humor and music that was as good as, if not better than, anyone ever attempted it -- and not every good musician has a good sense of humor. Moreover, the Monkees have been and are an inspiration that it is possible for amateurs, quasi-amateurs, and the ordinary Tom, Dick, and Harry, if their hearts are big enough, CAN rise to real talent and justified applause. If this isn't what inspiration is supposed be all about, then whatever was inspiration?"
You have to believe people will learn -- otherwise what's the point? Yet as cherished as this hope naturally is, who ever has the patience to depend and rely upon it?
Excessive grossness and too casual profanity are a problem with "Head of the Family" (1996), but this allowed for, it still, in its tongue in cheek way, has an important message and continuing relevance.
["Head of the Family Trailer"]
Even if you deny the existence of Satan, you can in no way deny there are those who would, and in all seriousness, take on the role and otherwise and earnestly be him -- if they could. What reason is there for doubting this? And if this so, why is it we rarely if ever here about such a "Napoleon(s) of Crime" in the mainstream media, even though there is no end of criticism and condemnation of practically any and everyone else who might be suspected of guilt of some kind? One answer might be that it is because, by and large, the mainstream media either works for and or is scared to death to even considering the possibility of there being such a one; with the existence (as we have demonstrated elsewhere) of criminal spirit people rendering an explanation of this kind all the more feasible and likely.
"In God we trust" -- but who and what then do people think God is? And if one can fool them in this, what can't that person get away with?
Yet another update of my article "Lee's Legion Remembered." But this one is of particular importance; being measurably expanded; details corrected and filled out; with new and more rare material incorporated. Here then are two links where it is available.
* http://www.gunjones.com/leeslegion.pdf
If you have trouble viewing this .pdf link, try right click and "Save as..." to download instead.
* http://www.scribd.com/doc/34216083/LEE-S-LEGION-2nd-PARTIZAN-CORPS-Continental-Army-series
If you actually did have everything you wanted and that was worth having, you would wish to be far more charitable than you already are.
After that which we cause ourselves (say, through poor judgment), the very worst harm that can happen to anyone comes from someone deliberately attacking you. Unintended accidents, by comparison, tend to be much more endurable. When then we groan, weep, or howl, the vast majority of the time it is because someone has purposefully made it their business to assail and make us suffer. But take it from me, whoever it is or might be, it most certainly isn't life and or the universe.
Now here's something to which we all can relate. (The one in the middle foreground, in case you didn't know, is famous actor Robert Downey, Jr.)
The conclusion is indeed a dire and desperate one. And yet what are the assumptions on which it is necessarily built? Can we honestly say we have duly scrutinized and examined them? And if we have not, how can we be so sure our conclusion is correct? Perhaps in going through life we are, after all, more blind than we think; even if not as blind as hell.
Which leads me to agree that Kant was right; (cognitive) reason -- of itself -- will not suffice to answer cosmological or ultimate questions with confidence, but yet it is, on the other hand, ample and sufficient for deciding those relating to morals and social concerns.
Although he dominates movies and television (and sundry media) like no one else in all history, we still don't know to this day who this so called "Speelburg" person is or what he looks like. However, in an effort to bridge the gap of our ignorance, below is a view based on an artist's conjecture. (With apologies to Steve Rydzewski.)
Excerpts from Augustine's epistles continued.
3. Consider for a little those books, De Republica [by Cicero], from which you imbibed that sentiment of a most loyal citizen, that there is no limit either in measure or in time to the claims which their country has upon the care and service of right-hearted men. Consider them, I beseech you, and observe how great are the praises there bestowed upon frugality, self-control, conjugal fidelity, and those chaste, honourable, and upright manners, the prevalence of which in any city entitles it to be spoken of as flourishing. Now the Churches which are multiplying throughout the world are, as it were, sacred seminaries of public instruction, in which this sound morality is inculcated and learned, and in which, above all, men are taught the worship due to the true and faithful God, who not only commands men to attempt, but also gives grace to perform, all those things by which the soul of man is furnished and fitted for fellowship with God, and for dwelling in the eternal heavenly kingdom. For this reason He has both foretold and commanded the casting down of the images of the many false gods which are in the world. For nothing so effectually renders men depraved in practice, and unfit to be good members of society, as the imitation of such deities as are described and extolled in pagan writings.
4. In fact, those most learned men (whose beau ideal of a republic or commonwealth in this world was, by the way, rather investigated or described by them in private discussions, than established and realized by them in public measures) were accustomed to set forth as models for the education of youth the examples of men whom they esteemed eminent and praiseworthy, rather than the example given by their gods. And there is no question that the young man in Terence, who, beholding a picture upon the wall in which was portrayed the licentious conduct of the king of the gods, fanned the flame of the passion which mastered him, by the encouragement which such high authority gave to wickedness, would not have fallen into the desire, nor have plunged into the commission, of such a shameful deed if he had chosen to imitate Cato instead of Jupiter; but how could he make such a choice, when he was compelled in the temples to worship Jupiter rather than Cato? Perhaps it may be said that we should not bring forward from a comedy arguments to put to shame the wantonness and the impious superstition of profane men. But read or recall to mind how wisely it is argued in the books above referred to, that the style and the plots of comedies would never be approved by the public voice if they did not harmonize with the manners of those who approved them; wherefore, by the authority of men most illustrious and eminent in the commonwealth to which they belonged, and engaged in debating as to the conditions of a perfect commonwealth, our position is established, that the most degraded of men may be made yet worse if they imitate their gods—gods, of course, which are not true, but false and invented.
5. You will perhaps reply, that all those things which were written long ago concerning the life and manners of the gods are to be far otherwise than literally understood and interpreted by the wise. Nay, we have heard within the last few days that such wholesome interpretations are now read to the people when assembled in the temples. Tell me, is the human race so blind to truth as not to perceive things so plain and palpable as these? When, by the art of painters, founders, hammermen, sculptors, authors, players, singers, and dancers, Jupiter is in so many places exhibited in flagrant acts of lewdness, how important it was that in his own Capitol at least his worshippers might have read a decree from himself prohibiting such crimes! If, through the absence of such prohibition, these monsters, in which shame and profanity culminate, are regarded with enthusiasm by the people, worshipped in their temples, and laughed at in their theatres; if, in order to provide sacrifices for them, even the poor must be despoiled of their flocks; if, in order to provide actors who shall by gesture and dance represent their infamous achievements, the rich squander their estates, can it be said of the communities in which these things are done, that they flourish? The flowers with which they bloom owe their birth not to a fertile soil, nor to a wealthy and bounteous virtue; for them a worthy parent is found in that goddess Flora, whose dramatic games are celebrated with a profligacy so utterly dissolute and shameless, that any one may infer from them what kind of demon that must be which cannot be appeased unless -— not birds, nor quadrupeds, nor even human life -— but (oh, greater villany!) human modesty and virtue, perish as sacrifices on her altars.
6. These things I have said, because of your having written that the nearer you come to the end of life, the greater is your desire to leave your country in a safe and flourishing condition. Away with all these vanities and follies, and let men be converted to the true worship of God, and to chaste and pious manners: then will you see your country flourishing, not in the vain opinion of fools, but in the sound judgment of the wise; when your fatherland here on earth shall have become a portion of that Fatherland into which we are born not by the flesh, but by faith, and in which all the holy and faithful servants of God shall bloom in the eternal summer, when their labours in the winter of time are done. We are therefore resolved, neither on the one hand to lay aside Christian gentleness, nor on the other to leave in your city that which would be a most pernicious example for all others to follow. For success in this dealing we trust to the help of God, if His indignation against the evil-doers be not so great as to make Him withhold His blessing. For certainly both the gentleness which we desire to maintain, and the discipline which we shall endeavour without passion to administer, may be hindered, if God in His hidden counsels order it otherwise, and either appoint that this so great wickedness be punished with a more severe chastisement, or in yet greater displeasure leave the sin without punishment in this world, its guilty authors being neither reproved nor reformed.
~ Letter 91