I’m thinking of changing the title of this blog. It seemed apt eleven years ago, when I had no idea what the focus would be, but now I’m getting tired of it.
That said, it’s just an itch at this point; maybe I will leave it alone. Comments? Suggestions?
20 Comments
If it don’t need fixed …
Besides, tho’ not as often as in days of yore, we still go, many places.
Malcolm,
If I were you (and, BTW, I am :), I would name your blog, “Upon Reflection”.
Might call it “Exploring Reality,” if descriptive titles are your bag.
It depends if you want the main scope of your blog to be about your general reflections or about specifically politics. If it’s about politics, perhaps something about nationalism, fair trade, protecting borders, balanced budget, against Islamism, demographics is destiny — i.e. something along the lines of “America First” :)
When I first visited your blog, I bookmarked the article I read. Since Mr Trump entered the field of candidates, I moved your blog to my sidebar, where I could more easily read it regularly. The story I bookmarked, and thus the “name” of your blog as it appears in my bookmarks, was: “And They Tell Me You Are Brutal”
Hi Tina,
I hope I haven’t disappointed you: I haven’t written much about Mr. Trump.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFqb1I-hiHE
taka taka taka?
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
Malcolm,
I think you see yourself as fighting a holding action against the forces of deterioration and destruction. This calls to mind a character from one of my favorite fantasy novels–a character called a Forestal whose sole duty is to use his inborn magic to preserve the trees of the land. The Sauron/devil figure who is the antagonist of the series has created a terrible curse called the Sunbane, which violates natural processes, forcing them to accelerate or to slow down, to twist and bend and mutate. As wave after wave of this curse has hit the land, the plants have grown and withered, grown and become gnarled; the animals exposed to the Sunbane have become freakish versions of what they used to be; the entire earth is unraveling…
–all except for one small region of the land, a place called Andelain, where the Law of nature flows purely and properly. This is the constricted domain of the Forestal, the last bastion of true Law as everything around him has crumbled and decayed. And as is true for many powerful characters in this alternate universe, the Forestal buoys himself by singing a soul-mantra. I’ve always found this particular poem powerful, and my heart has always thrummed to its refrain: “I hold the glaive of Law against the Earth.”
Andelain I hold and mold within my fragile spell,
While world’s ruin ruins wood and wold.
Sap and bough are grief and grim to me, engrievement fell,
And petals fall without relief.
Astricken by my power’s dearth,
I hold the glaive of Law against the Earth.
Andelain I cherish dear within my mortal breast;
And faithful I withhold Despiser’s wish.
But faithless is my ache for dreams and slumbering and rest,
And burdens make my courage break.
The Sunbane mocks my best reply,
And all about and in me beauties die.
Andelain! I strive with need and loss, and ascertain
That the Despiser’s might can rend and rive.
Each falter of my ancient heart is all the evil’s gain;
And it appalls without relent.
I cannot spread my power more,
Though teary visions come of wail and gore.
Oh, Andelain! forgive! For I am doomed to fail this war.
I cannot bear to see you die–and live,
Foredoomed to bitterness and all the gray Despiser’s lore.
But while I can I heed the call
Of green and tree; and for their worth,
I hold the glaive of Law against the Earth.
So: “The Glaive of Law.”
a ‘dol an iomadh Á ite
Malcolm Museing or Pollack’s Polemics
I kind of like the current title, but I admit it’s a bit obscure and inaccessible.
“Knowing the World” comes to mind as a paraphrase of Conquest’s First Law of Politics, but on reflection it seems a bit grandiose and unspecific. I’ll let you know if anything better comes to mind to suggest.
By the way, I’ve been wondering if you were going to be calling out Obama’s statement about Hillary, “I don’t think there’s ever been someone so qualified to hold this office.”
Even, I would hope, fans like OEM of Obama and Hillary, who support her for other reasons, would acknowledge the screaming, batshit craziness of that statement– the thoroughgoing bankruptcy of the definition of “qualified” that would need to be the case for that statement to be true. (Sad to say, though, that hope is probably not realistic for devotees of the cult that is Progressivism.)
Hi Malcolm, your articles and your POV have never disappointed. It is not required to be a Trump supporter or even to write about politics. But I had to wash my hands of anyone who, instead of doing their own due diligence, signed up for “NeverTrump”, so I went looking for bloggers whose opinions are reality based, and genuinely their own. :-)
Thanks, all. Some good suggestions.
Kevin, great comment. I especially liked it because I’m probably one of the few people you know who actually owns a “glaive”. Here it is:
I like your name. It sets you apart.
However, I do understand the need to change, and would keep reading you with a different name.
I’m late to the name thing but how about- “After all that-This”?
Ive always liked Dienekes response, in Herodotus Hstores, to the claim that the Persian arrows would blot out the sun. Fighting the left feels like one is fighting in darkness.
A reference to that passage 7.226 in ancient Greek would be pithy
Malcolm:
Change it! I never understood why you would choose a name that means nothing to most people. A name should be descriptive.
Don’t explain, don’t defend, just change it.
Whitewall, you’re not really Robert Marchenoir? I did entertain the possibility but then couldn’t substantiate my suspicions. If you are, voting twice is cheating.
That very French name sets somebody apart, that’s for sure and doesn’t really line up with the man who says that only the UK matters. I’ll admit it, I’m confused.
I hope this comment is far enough back so that no one will notice except the protagonists.