The Hall of Fire

My wife (Japanese), hates Trump. But she's heard everything that I've told her about him. Other people, well, there have been a couple of television specials here in Japan explaining the shady character of many of Trump's business dealings over the years. All the people I have talked to about him se...

It's horrible. This kind of "Office" is formed with the specific purpose of creating hate. That way they try to make the unthinkable thinkable. Trump will fail, however. The question is how long it will take for him to fail and how extensive and long lasting the damage will be. Trump can d...

Perhaps unlike some readers of Tolkien, I for one think it is perfectly valid to interpret much of his work in the light of his Catholic beliefs (which I no longer share). For me, Tolkien’s notion that his legendarium should not explicity contain the Christian mythos does not at all preclude the (to...

I'm with (what I imagine to be) JRRT's position on this one. Self-driving cars are madness.

Of course, driver-driven cars are madness as well: Mr. Bliss

(Apology: I am sorry I am always so long-winded. I try to be clear, and I try not to be discourteous. This style of writing helps me do that. But it might be tiresome...) I've always seen Tolkien as a "Catholic" author since I grew up in a family who viewed him that way. After finishing th...

It seems that Voronwë and I independently arrived at more or less the same conclusion that C. Tolkien may have been mistaken in thinking that "The Second Prophecy of Mandos" was definitively abandoned by JRRT. I also feel it could have been retained as being part of those aspects of the my...

Voronwë, very interesting. This is one of the reasons I hesitate to post, because I know there's already been a huge amount of discussion on just about everything and I need to read through a lot of posts before I can really comment on a topic. However on this relatively short thread I hope to discu...

Perhaps I should apologize. To be clear, I wasn’t hoping to get any new readers for my version. And it’s a moot point anyway: due to neglect on my part as well as to the advance of technology, the PC where these files may have been stored was junked some time ago, and any other files were on floppie...

This is my personal favorite story from the First Age in spite of its darkness. I was really excited when this book was published, but was disappointed by some of the particular choices that Christopher Tolkien made in its editing. However, since I had long been dreaming of a beautiful illustrated s...

But then, according to the story, Jesus went on to extend his rather miraculous "health care coverage" to the foreign woman's daughter. Actually, I myself am not a believer. But I recognize that between Ayn Rand and the more traditional or "orthodox" forms of Christianity there i...

It never ceases to amaze me that Paul Ryan (and others) consider themselves followers of Jesus Christ and yet are admirers of Ayn Rand at the same time.

Hurray for Judge Derrick Watson! But I wonder what will happen to this (and other rulings) when Judge Gorsuch or someone else like him who passes judgement without compassion gets confirmed to the Supreme Court.

Beutlin and Nin make some important and interesting observations. I would observe that the labels of "terrorist" and "freedom fighter" are not mutually exclusive. Reprehensible injustices are often committed in the name of just causes, which fact does not at all justify the injus...

Thank you for the welcome. I don't see a thread for self-introductions, so I would like to introduce myself a bit here, if I may. I am originally from California [love those giant Sequoias!], which I consider to be my native land (rather than the USA) but I have been living in Japan for a number of ...