quislibet | oookaaayyy...

Classics-L is awash in international politics, ostensibly related to the looting of the archaeology museum in Baghdad, or because of something classicist Victor Davis Hanson said in some op-ed piece or other (he himself does not post on the list), or because some news article contains a Latin word -- but in general people just want to argue about the war, and have by now more or less stopped pretending that their argument has anything to do with the purpose of the list.

Anyway: one thread started with a newspaper article about the habit of the past few presidents of giving military salutes, not apparently in vogue (according to the article) before Reagan, even during declared wars or by presidents who had served in the military, and proceeding from there to the ominous implications of empire (noting that "emperor" itself comes from the Latin title "imperator," a rough equivalent to "commander-in-chief").

Yeah, whatever. But the thread quickly died when someone posted THIS, to which there has been no reply:

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Origins of the Emperor^Òs salute:

It was not invented by Ronald Regan or Nixon; you
won^Òt like it!

Prieure de Sion (Priory of Sion) medieval secret
society that later on evolved into the
Rosicrusians^◊--later on Masonic Order
(Freemasons)^◊--later on KKK (a secret branch of the
Free-Masons)--- all linked to the following below:

Skull & Bones (Yale)

Scroll & Key (Harvard)

Both societies are secret branches (also called the
Brotherhood of Death) of what is otherwise
historically known as the Illuminati.

[...]

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And there were lots of "USEFUL but SCARY LINKS" to Geocities pages and so forth.

I envision the bookstore guy from last night's "Angel."

So it occurs to me that the length of time between my first year of grad school and now is the same as the period between 7th grade and that first year of grad school.

In other news, how 'bout that wind yesterday? Temperature dropped 15 degrees in 5 minutes and I was afraid I'd be sandblasted to death (*). Damnedest thing.

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(*) Some sort of cousin I didn't know was sandblasted to death in a work-related accident about fifteen or twenty years ago. Ouchie.