But I don't know how sophisticated things will be philosophically as opposed to philologically.

Has anyone out there been to any meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature? There is a call for papers for a "Religion and Philosophy in Antiquity SBL Seminar " in Denver in Nov. and I should have something on pagan theurgy I can give and it would be nice to see my sisters.

A SWAT Team Killed My Dad. I'm Telling You — We're Analyzing ICE Shootings The Wrong Way. "I do not watch these incidents as a spectator. I watch them as someone who has already lived through what law enforcement escalation costs."

From my friend (and former student) Eli Federman

www.huffpost.com/entry/police...

Eli adds on a public fb post: my mom forensically enhanced one of the tapes . . you can hear officers making antisemitic . . remarks like “crap, that Jew better shut up” and “hey Rabbi, are you a Christian?” . . .

Thank you. Not this year but definitely looks good. Languages sometimes require starting over, over and over again.

Wonderful. I am on chapter 31 of Egenes, doing the selections from the Bhagavat-Gita. I am at the level of say someone who uses the Loeb Classical library to figure out what word renders what but not much more. Thanks for the recommendation. Is A Ruppel starting you from the very beginning?

Not as much as Clash of Civilizations. People thought it unfortunate reactionary nationalism at the time, a product of a fading major intellect. But some people took note. I thought I remembered a reference to its impact on Miller but can't track it down. www.simonandschuster.com/books/Who-Ar...

Basic to his worldview. Huntington's "Who Are We?" was for him a formative book. Huntington's anti-immigration screed thought ws focused on Mexicans -- he argued that their Catholicism was incompatible with the American Protestant ethos!

Maybe but no one is claiming that there was genocide in Lebanon. Reckless violence maybe -- the pagers and bombs did hurt and kill a lot of innocents -- but not genocide. "Hands off Lebanon" was part of the chant -- as though bombs were not raining down from Hezbollah.

But I would be very interested in other construals.

It means "don't defend yourself" in the context of a fight with Hamas which made very clear that it would repeat Oct 7 if and when it can. Whether that is still Hamas's position isn't clear.

Editorial I wrote for the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle

www.jewishchronicle.org/2025/11/07/o...

t's a good time to remind ourselves of the Talmudic understanding of this week's parsha - the primary sin of the people of Sodom was the mistreatment of immigrants, and it was this for which the nation as a whole was punished.

www.sefaria.org/Sanhedrin.10...

Trump’s Tariff Tempest: Lessons from Kautilya's Dual Policy Introduction: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Trade Wars In an era of escalating trade tensions and economic brinkmanship, the principles of Kautilya’s Arthashastra offer timeless insights into navigating c...

I was wondering if anyone else made the connection and this guy in fact did. He thinks that Modi and Trump are both playing the same game, in regard to tariffs. pranavpatel.co/trumps-tarif... And he thinks it's a good game to play. Frightening times.

en.wikisource.org/wiki/Arthash... and so forth. Kautilya though is not totally amoral as is Trump -- there is rectitude and care for the citizenry -- within the nation. But outside the nation the king must follow the sheer logic of threats and violence.

Whoever is inferior to another shall make peace with him; whoever is superior in power shall wage war; whoever thinks "no enemy can hurt me, nor am I strong enough to destroy my enemy," shall observe neutrality; whoever is possessed of necessary means shall march against his enemy; . . . .

"otherwise (i.e., when he is provided with some help), he deserves to be harassed or reduced. Such are the aspects of an enemy." en.wikisource.org/wiki/Arthash...

"A neighbouring foe of considerable power is styled an enemy; and when he is involved in calamities or has taken himself to evil ways, he becomes assailable; and when he has little or no help, he becomes destructible;

To see the coherence of the Trumpian mob mentality, especially in international affairs, see Kautilya's Arthashastra. k works through the alliances and wars of kings, each seeking to maximize his own power. Alliances are temporary -- the weak submit to avoid destruction.

Really helps to have a partner, to keep one honest and on schedule. I'm learning with @freeandclear1.bsky.social

A prime directive of grad classes -- you have to be able to work with the original texts. So I'm back at it. Last time, Coulson. I am using Egenes this time. Must easier to learn from.

Coulson makes devangari optional. A mistake I think.

Like any language, you just have to stick with it.

I have an interest in Indian philosophy. I learned it years ago and could read Sankara but it all went away. The way to learn is to teach, and with deaths and retirements I finally have the chance to teach Asian philosophy. But for bureaucratic reasons it has to be a grad class.

Just a tool. But not looking forward to dealing with undergrad papers this fall.

But I must say that it has been a wonderful help in my study of Sanskrit, when text exercises stump me. gpt-4 got it right about half the time, gpt-5 almost aways.

gpt-4 would often hallucinate texts when prompted with a question like "Where does Iamblichus say X?" gpt-5 gets it.

I look on the age of AI with considerable trepidation. And I am aware of the problems that gpt-5 has had, shifting tasks to rather stupid submodels to "speed things up"

Bleecker and McDougal @60+; Benefit for Jail Guitar Doors; Linneman's Riverwest Inn Milwaukee WI January 25, 2025 - YouTube Videography: Stephen Vincent Anderson Please donate to Jail Guitar Doors here https://www.jailguitardoors.org/donate

Here is a link to the playlist of a show I produced not long ago, in honor of the old NYC/NE folk scene, a benefit for www.jailguitardoors.org I am very proud of how it turned out. Please check it out, and if you can, donate.

www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Last I heard the Ancient Commentators Series www.ancientcommentators.org.uk was looking for someone to do the NE Commentary, with which, I take it, Buridan was working. I have an unfinished paper on sophia in that commentary I should get back to.

That solution makes some sense! I am doing the Posterior Analytics not the NE commentary, so your solution I suppose would have all the pronouns be masculine.

It still strikes me as weird, when translating ancient or medieval texts. But the language is changing.

Finishing up another translation for the Ancient Commentators on Aristotle series. This, by Eustratius, a Byzantine bishop, who was hardly likely to have gender justine on his mind. But, when E is speaking of a generic thinker (not Aristotle) -- you you think it best now to go with "they"?

Coulson's big plus is to say -- never mind about memorizing sandhi rules -- just use the charts

Once I get through vol 2 of Egenes I am interested in finding other intermediate students with whom to work through some Sanskrit philosophical texts.