The Long Trail of Posts

Occasionally we get lucky and stumble across interesting works of art buried deep in the cultural mud—where they would probably stay—if folk like us weren’t out there dirt-fishing for hidden gems …
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But even teaching, which allowed the greatest latitude for my manias, often provoked my inner Younger Bear, and so I found myself frequently on maneuvers against the robotic administration, or dropping a lecture on Wendell Berry to teach my students …
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Things aren’t as complicated as we’ve made them. If you don’t want to get fat stop eating so much and go for a walk. If you don’t want to destroy your liver and wreck your personal relationships stop drinking. That’s …
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At the febrile height of the French Revolution — the political event that created the modern world — the General Council  of the Paris Commune issued a kind of passport for citizens who could demonstrate that they were politically reliable …
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Blackouts are good when you don’t want to get bombed, but I’m in the trenches like everybody else and if I want to light a cigarette I’m going to light it. That’s late stage trench-madness and severely pisses off the …
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It’s the most important Christmas story in American history. The Battle of Trenton, fought in the early morning hours of December 26, 1776, saved the American revolutionary cause. After a series of devastating defeats in New York through the summer …
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These days I’m reduced to taking coffee at a place where the coffee is actually good, but the ambiance feels like a hospital waiting-room. Another reason I don’t love the place is that I frequently see a lunatic woman there …
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I’ve been spending a lot of time in the 18th Century, prepping for the Frontier Partisans Podcast series on Pontiac’s War (1763–64). If, as medievalist Dan Jones says, history is always a conversation between past and present, I guess I’ve …
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It’s fine, I’m sure. Nothing to worry about. (CNN)—The US scientists who created the first living robots say the life forms, known as xenobots, can now reproduce — and in a way not seen in plants and animals. Formed from …
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One longs for politicians with the wisdom and foresight of Ben Franklin, the raw intelligence of Jefferson, or the sheer tenacity of John Adams. These were careful, competent, and extremely brave men, willing to risk everything they had and whose …
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There is, I suppose, a Heraclitian aspect to our film because nothing is fixed in the outback. The petroglyphs weather and the granite grows its rinds of colorful lichen, the courses of creeks and rivers change in drought or in …
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A couple of weeks ago, the newspaper I work for published a very sad letter to the editor. The writer was mourning the death of his oldest friend, his loss made the more painful because they had become estranged. Over …
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Look, I’m NOT a medievalist. Sure, I’ve posted a thing or two here and on Frontier Partisans about medieval plagues and warfare and misrule and such — as one does. Actually, my most recent post was on the Ottoman Empire …
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Synchronicity has been chiming, as it does. The Ottoman Empire looms on my historical horizon. It started with a tent… Next weekend, our hometown hosts the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. My newspaper created the program for the event, producing about …
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President Biden’s announcement that some 9,000 Afghans who served the United States during our long war in their country will be evacuated and protected is most welcome. From the New York Times: President Biden said on Thursday (June 24) that …
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Race, racism, and how to teach our children about it has roiled school districts across the country. Here in Central Oregon, the Bend-LaPine School Board election school board election became a scrum over the purported threat of the infiltration of …
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“This is probably the first time a robot has autonomously attacked and killed human beings.” — Ed Nash’s Military Matters Anybody who is familiar with the historical fiction science fiction Terminator series knows that the shit hit the fan …
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A person here in my town asked me the other day what my beliefs are regarding climate change. Note that phrasing. It was a political and ideological question. Isn’t everything these days? The question was asked sincerely and in good …
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