Category Archives: Philosophical, Psychological & Historical Considerations

Bertrand Russell complained about one of his grandmother’s preferred puns, “What is mind? Doesn’s matter. What is matter? Never mind.” And yet we, as a species, continuously attempt to fathom the mystery of the mind, with the help of philosophy, psychology and history. Shakespeare has given us much food for thought on all three, as well as music for those who love the music of words.

Tragicomedy of Errors

Posted on March 17, 2019 by jimmie

The sublime Plato said that the soul has a trinitarian composition – a very coarse soul in the belly, a loving one in the chest and a reasoning third in the head. The soul is immortal, though women have only two souls, for they are missing reason. But a father attending the Council of Macon Read More

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In Praise of Shamelessness

Posted on February 6, 2019 by jimmie

So much has been said about the Venezuelan crisis that adding more would equate to gilding the lily or carrying coal to Newcastle. The following, then, is but a brief aside on the psychology and physiognomy of the protagonists of the ongoing coup, starting with Guaido’ – or “Guido” as Mike Pompeo’s re-baptism , while Read More

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The Waves of Time

Posted on January 19, 2019 by jimmie

That all the world is a stage and all men and women merely players is a familiar and generally accepted proposition. But many, prompted by curiosity and helped by new information previously unknown or uneasily available, would like to know more about the play they are the unwitting players thereof. Which transforms the frame of Read More

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The Cardinal’s Letter

Posted on October 11, 2018 by jimmie

Sooner or later it was inevitable that the capitulation of the Vatican to the demands of a decadent culture and of powerful enemies would awaken the trumpet of sedition inside the Catholic Church. As readers may already know, Cardinal Viganò recently wrote an open letter to Pope Francis asking him to resign. I will attempt Read More

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Tales Told The Millennials

Posted on September 22, 2018 by jimmie

Decades are acknowledged historical markers, signaling the birth of a new generation, and the transition between adjacent but different cultural times. Since September 2001, the inaudible and noiseless foot of time (1) has advanced by almost two decades. And two generations are now alive who did not see 9/11, and will derive only from school, Read More

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From 1000 AD to WW3

Posted on August 13, 2018 by jimmie

If, according to Oscar Wilde, truth is a matter of style, even more so history is a matter of opinion. An obvious and unnecessary remark, were it not for the anger of some when they dissent with the thoughts of others. To them I would recommend, with all the earnestness at my disposal, the recollection Read More

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Prisoners of Words

Posted on July 30, 2018 by jimmie

During his recent meeting with Putin in Helsinki, Trump, answering a question form a US journalist, said that there was no reason to suspect Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential elections. However, back on home soil, he said that what he meant was the opposite. In the circumstances, there is some difficulty in assigning Read More

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Meditations on Skripal

Posted on April 11, 2018 by jimmie

Parisians, and those who roam the streets of Paris to take upon themselves the Frenchness of things, will no doubt know or remember the elegant, historic and fashionable Place Vendome. There is a history in all men’s lives(1) and in what they built. In the instance, however, I only refer to the Duke of Vendome, Read More

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Dostoyevsky and the Chosen People

Posted on March 31, 2018 by jimmie

Dostoyevsky is known as an eminent tower of world literature and an implacable depth-sounder of the remotest recesses of the human soul – an analytical mind, fascinated by the invisible chemistry of people’s consciousness and emotions. And if Pushkin can be called the Raphael of Russian literature, Dostoyevsky is undoubtedly its Michelangelo. Very, or at Read More

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The Founding Fathers and Other Tales

Posted on February 19, 2018 by jimmie

The skeptics among my twenty-five readers may suspect from the title, that I am jumping on the bandwagon of our discontent(1), to direct cheap shots at a stale target. Perish the thought. Irreverence towards the actors excludes irreverence towards the myth, even if the actors were its fathers – for myths are the ground of Read More

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