Here’s an interesting list from Lists Unlimited: Top Ten Myths About the Middle Ages. It’s pretty good.

I dislike the modern definition of “myth” to mean “false belief,” but I guess that ship has long sailed.

One point I’d modify is the one about bathing in the Middle Ages. The term “Middle Ages” covers a whole lot of territory, and is used in different ways by different historians. My particular period of interest, the Viking Age, used to be considered part of “The Dark Ages.” The Dark Ages were reckoned to cover (more or less) that part of European History commencing with the fall of Rome and ending with the Norman Conquest of England. The designation was not, technically, meant as a moral judgment, but just a reflection of the fact that records from the period were sparse. Rulers tended to just do stuff, without bothering about writing it down, or if they did, those records were likely to have gotten lost or destroyed. So the history was dark in terms of being hard to see.

Nowadays the term “Dark Ages” has gone out of fashion. Historians now generally call it “The Early Middle Ages.” There’s some justification for this, as new discoveries, especially in the field of archaeology (where they’re now able to learn amazing stuff through the use of modern technology) have shed a lot of light on the period.

But if the Dark Ages is considered part of the Middle Ages now, I know for a fact that bathing was not, in fact, common in England during that period. Gwyn Jones, in his A History of the Vikings, says: Continue reading No soap, please, we’re British →

I’m reduced to stream-of-consciousness tonight, no ideas at all, so who knows what the harvest will be.

My Christmas tree is unlighted tonight. Yesterday was the Feast of the Epiphany, the last day of Christmas, so now I’m done. In the last few years I’ve moved from my parents’ Christmas tree tradition (in which you light it every night until New Year’s) to a church calendar approach, letting my little light(s) shine through January 6.

This is the worst time of the year, in my world. Up through Christmas, you’ve got the celebration and the lights to bear your spirits up. Now there’s just the Long March through Jan, Feb and Mar, and frequently Apr, and sometimes parts of May in Minnesota. The days are getting longer, it’s true, but the impotent winter sun has no effective influence, like a freshman Republican congressman.

Speaking of legislators, this winter is given added piquancy by the fact that it looks very much as if Al Franken is going to be my senator when all’s said and done. Wherever I surf in the conservative blogosphere, commentators are saying essentially the same thing—“What the h****? What are they smoking up in that state? Have I been transferred to some alternate universe where failed comedy writers with drug histories are presumed to Be In Touch With the Gods, and are therefore chosen as tribal elders, like peyote-addled Navajo medicine men?”

I’ve talked about the history of Minnesota liberalism in this space before (our Democratic party is officially called The Democratic Farmer-Labor Party), but it’s enough to say that most Minnesotans have liberal instincts and believe that Baby Jesus cries whenever a Republican vote is cast. Give them a Democratic landslide year, and they transform into lemmings (lemmings are a Norwegian animal, by the way. I saw one once). In that frame of mind, Minnesotans will (to quote Mitch Berg of Shot In the Dark) “elect a set of wind-up chattering teeth if the DFL nominated it.”

In Minnesota politics, you have to work pretty hard to achieve hyperbole.

Just to let you know, I may not be able to post anything tonight, as my DSL connection went phooph yesterday evening, and I expect to spend this evening in Customer Service Purgatory (TM).



Update: I’m back. Once again, Earthlink Support came through faster than I expected. This may destroy my faith in human cussedness.

HEADLINE: “Milky Way Galaxy Suddenly Much Bigger, Heavier”

Suddenly, eh? I’m shocked. Apparently, astronomers have learned our galaxy is bigger, denser, and moving faster than previously thought. Of course, the brass tacks is what it has always been–the end is near.

“A bigger Milky Way means that it could be crashing violently into the neighboring Andromeda galaxy sooner than predicted — though still billions of years from now.”

Now, I’m going home to curl up in bed for a while. No hope. What will become of us?

I confess I do not understand politicians and activists who act as if governmental policy is like any sports game–no moral principles are being fought over, we’re just opposing teams in a big, expensive game. I am a conservative because I believe those ideals promote life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. As Quin Hillyer puts it:

Limited government isn’t a means, it’s an end. Or, rather, it’s part and parcel of the end of maximum liberty under law that is rooted in the Judeo-Christian moral and ethical tradition. We believe that if government isn’t limited, it is dangerous.

Likewise, protection of parental authority and of the nuclear family isn’t just a nostalgic or emotional tic; it’s bedrock of a free society because — among many other blessings — it provides the stability and order without which freedom quickly devolves into anarchy.

For these reasons, I embrace the Oogedy-Boogedy. Apparently others are publically embracing it too, though I want to point out that being a Republican does not mean you are a conservative. There are liberal Republicans out there just as there are people of all stripes.

But apparently, conservatives in Hollywood and other media centers are stepping out of the shadows. Andrew Klavan is quoted in second article saying “a spate of recent political movies like Rendition and Redaction also strengthened the conservative cause.

‘These movies are genuinely anti-American. Never before have we had anti-war movies made while our troops were at war. Many people like me were ashamed of the industry, and there’s been a bit of a backlash.'”

Klavan also has a post cheering a new blog, Big Hollywood, run by popular blogger Andrew Breitbart.