<$BlogRSDURL$>
Trousered Ape
An exercise in presumption.
Saturday, May 28, 2005
Light blogging recently. The pace of work has picked up recently, taking up not only more of my time, but more of my mental energy (never at a high level to begin with). There has also been some time and effort spent taking care of the Storm Queen, who came down with one of her periodic colds last Sunday; the Bride and I each spent a night sitting up with her. Finally, I'm trying to pull together into postable form some thoughts on God and time; the task of translating my thoughts into coherent and logical English is, and has always been, difficult and daunting.

Meanwhile, should you happen to stop by, could you please say a prayer or two for my youngest brother and his wife? She is an immigrant from Peru and has run afoul of the arcane rules of the INS, which is trying to send her back, which would mean, among other things, separating her from her two older children from a previous marriage, because their father has joint custody. One would think that being married to an American citizen, and being the mother of American citizens, would shield her; but apparently not.

Other than that, things are going pretty smoothly. The lawn is getting mowed. The new mower has a 42" cutting deck instead of the 38" deck on the old one; you would not believe the difference that an extra 4" makes when you have about 3/4 of an acre to mow. The Equestrienne successfully completed her second year of homeschooling with an excellent evaluation and moved up to the 7th grade; the Storm Queen successfully completed her first year - an evaluation is not required at here level - and moved up to the 2nd grade, which thrilled her amazingly. Things will be a little slower at home for a few weeks; then the Equestrienne starts drama camp. Two years ago she joined the Bride in a local production of Bye Bye Birdie; she was a member of the chorus, while the Bride fulfilled a lifelong dream by playing Mrs. Peterson (and, in my not entirely biased opinion, joined with the actor playing Conrad Birdie to give the two best performances in the show); she acquired a taste for acting and is really looking forward to trying it again. They will be working on a production of Cinderella and the Equestrienne is hoping to land the role of one of the stepsisters.

This will have to be it for now; I have much to do today. God bless anyone who reads this.
Monday, May 23, 2005
Golf news: Bernadette Luse shot a final-round 73 to tie for 51st place at the LPGA Sybase Classic. Congratulations!
Sunday, May 15, 2005
Golf news: Bernadette Luse, daughter of Bill Luse of Apologia, has made the cut at the LPGA Chick-Fil-A Charity Championship. Congratulations!
Friday, May 13, 2005
Steven Riddle surveys the dispute between neo-Darwinism and Intelligent Design and lucidly shows that it is about philosophy and not science. Go and learn.

(Thanks to Julie at Happy Catholic.)
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
More changes to the blogroll:

Added:

Anchor Rising
The Cafeteria is Closed
Drive-Thru Musings
Inklings
The Peeping Thomists

Updated:

Anne Elliot has moved to a new address.
Sunday, May 08, 2005
It is with some reluctance that I venture to disagree with the formidable Elinor Dashwood; yet Apes rush in where fools fear to tread. Miss Dashwood has laid down some severe strictures on the character and conduct of the late Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra VII, which strictures are, I think, overly harsh. I would like to present a brief for the defense. Please note that I shall speak only of the Cleopatra of history; concerning the Cleopatras of Shakespeare or Hollywood I have nothing to say.

The first charge:

She started out sleeping with a man old enough to be her grandfather

In fact, Julius Caesar was 31 years older than Cleopatra. While it is certainly biologically possible to have three generations within such a span, the difference in age is really not great enough to justify such a bald assertion.

Furthermore, the alternative was to sleep with her own younger brother Ptolemy XIII, then about 15 years old, to whom she was married. Given the conduct of the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt, sleeping with someone not a close relative may almost count as a positive accomplishment.

The next:

[she] had only one child

While she indeed had only one child with Julius Caesar - Ptolemy XV Caesarion - she had three others with Mark Antony.

I confess that I do not understand the implied reproof. I do not know of any evidence that Cleopatra could have had more children but chose not to do so.

The next:

[this child] was afterward murdered in a power struggle like the one she engaged in with her brother

Without taking sides in the dispute between Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII, I would point out that they were declared co-rulers of Egypt by the will of their father Ptolemy XII, and that it was Ptolemy XIII who drove Cleopatra into exile; her liaison with Caesar was made to obtain his help in regaining her throne. An appeal to Caesar would have been defensible not only for expediency's sake, but also because Ptolemy XII had named Rome as the guardian of his children. Caesar, representing and wielding the power of Rome, had an obligation to intervene.

Caesarion was indeed eventually murdered - by Octavian, after Cleopatra's defeat and death, and because he was Julius Caesar's son and so a potential rival to Octavian. Lives of royal offspring are always a poor risk when power politics is involved. Blaming Cleopatra for Caesarion's death makes no more sense than blaming Henry VI for the fate of the Princes in the Tower.

The power struggle, moreover, was primarily a struggle between Antony and Octavian, and likely would have occurred, in some form, regardless of Cleopatra.

The next:

[she] made a fool of herself over yet another man

It is at least as plausible that Antony was the fool. Plutarch certainly gives that impression.

It seems likely that that their relationship was primarily a political alliance: Antony needed the resources of Egypt to further his ambitions, and Cleopatra needed Antony's power and authority to further hers; though it may have been strengthened by mutual attraction or even love.

In fact, it is almost impossible to find a monarch - anywhere, anytime - who was destroyed, or even seriously inconvenienced, by "romance". The list pretty much begins and ends with the unimpressive lightweight, Edward VIII.

Finally,

and ended up killing herself

She had lost the war with Rome. Had she not killed herself, she would have been led in Octavian's triumph and almost certainly executed. Others - notably Mithridates of Pontus and Hannibal - preferred suicide to falling into the hands of Rome, without incurring much in the way of historical obloquy; surely the same lenience could be extended to Cleopatra.

Those who value a quiet life will do well to avoid becoming mixed up with people who admire the Cleopatras of this world. They tend to be the sort of people who think that what makes a woman interesting is her capacity to make trouble.

Cleopatra was, for the most part, a typical Hellenistic monarch. The game of Hellenistic monarchy was a no-holds-barred affair in which the goal was to extend your sway by any means possible, alliances were made and unmade at will, war was always an option, murder was the preferred way to deal with the politically inconvenient, and many a bargain was paid in the coin of a sister or daughter. She was atypical in that she was the only woman who was a Hellenistic monarch in her own right, and so could exploit her sex on her own behalf instead of being exploited on someone else's. Her misfortune, shared by many, was that she ran up against Rome.

To conclude: Cleopatra was a monarch who happened to be a woman, not a woman who happened to be a monarch. Judge her accordingly.

 

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.


Please pray for the souls in Purgatory

May the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God rest in peace.


New address bobtheape88...at...gmail...dot...com


Family:
  The Ape's Human Bride
  The English Major
  The Storm Queen


Household:
  That Darn Cat


My Author Website


Blogroll

(permanently under construction)



Against the Grain
Aliens in This World
The American Catholic
A Minor Friar
Anecdotal Evidence
The B-Movie Catechism
Bethune Catholic
Bettnet
Bonfire of the Vanities
Cat Rotator’s Quarterly
A Catholic Mom climbing the Pillars
Charlotte was Both
Chris Lansdown
Confessions of a Hot Carmel Sundae
Creative Minority Report
Crossover Queen's Creative Chaos
The Curt Jester
DarwinCatholic
The Dawn Patrol
Defensor Fidei
Disputations
Domine, da mihi hanc aquam!
Dr. Taylor Marshall
Dyspeptic Mutterings
Edward Feser
Eve Tushnet
Happy Catholic
Head Noises
The Inn at the End of the World
Korrektiv
Lex Communis
Mad Genius Club
Mattias Inks
The Passive Voice
A Pilgrim’s Journey
Serpent’s Den
Siris
A Song of Joy by Caroline Furlong
Synova
The Taos Tatler
V for Victory!
Video meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor
What Does the Prayer Really Say
Wheat & Weeds


Et cetera


Dinosaur Comics
Girl Genius

Links Too Good to Lose


Hey There, Cthulhu
Conan - the Musical
The Gashlycrumb Tinies



Vanity of the Scribbler


Ants
Still More Nescopecks
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
Beat It
The Dick and Jane Version of The Cask of Amontillado
How I Defeated Death
The Last Question
Donovan's Brain
The Hokey Pokey: Longfellow
The Hokey Pokey: Omar Khayyam
The Hokey Pokey: Edgar Lee Masters
Cat Without a Clue
Die Hard IS a Christmas Movie
Blofeld's Cat
More Nescopecks
Grandma Got Done Over by the Turkeys
Thirteenth Night, or, What You Kill
The Danish Astronomer and His Moose - a Drinking Song
Roe v. Wade
If Shakespeare Had an MBA
Strange Religious Xylophones
Floccinaucinihilipilification
The Ruler of the Pope's Navee
Oh, Purple Cow - a Sonnet
An Incovenient Tragedy
Nescopecks
The King Tut March
Back Yard Haiku
Triolets of Horror
Bishop Trautman and the Translators
Procrustes
The Drunken Ferret Villanelle
The Evil Ternominated
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Godzilla?
Bishop Bo-Peep
Kronos & Kids - A Mythological Sitcom
A Scary Vegetable
St. George? Never Heard of Him
Godzilla - The Musical
Shocking Contraception, or, Ball Lightning
Legion of Faithbots
Occasioned by the Acquittal of Michael Jackson
If Edgar Allan Poe had written “Dick and Jane”

ARCHIVES
April 2004 May 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 February 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2009 December 2009 January 2010 February 2010 March 2010 April 2010 May 2010 June 2010 July 2010 August 2010 September 2010 October 2010 November 2010 December 2010 March 2011 April 2011 May 2011 July 2011 August 2011 September 2011 October 2011 December 2011 January 2012 February 2012 April 2012 June 2012 August 2012 December 2012 January 2013 February 2013 March 2013 April 2013 June 2013 August 2013 September 2013 October 2013 December 2013 February 2014 March 2014 May 2014 June 2014 December 2014 September 2015 April 2016 November 2016 April 2017 May 2017 September 2017 January 2018 February 2018 April 2018 May 2018 September 2018 December 2018 January 2019 February 2019 June 2019 August 2019 February 2020 May 2020 September 2020 December 2020 February 2021 March 2021 May 2021 July 2021 August 2021 November 2021 December 2021 June 2022 July 2022 August 2022 September 2022 October 2022 November 2022 December 2022 January 2023 February 2023 March 2023 April 2023 May 2023 June 2023 July 2023 August 2023 September 2023 October 2023 November 2023 December 2023 January 2024 February 2024 March 2024

Powered by Blogger