Showing posts with label Plato. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Plato. Show all posts

December 29, 2012

Of the Day (12/29/12)

The Amazing Sassy
The Amazing Sassy - Sassy the cat

Links
Why Nate Silver is Not Just Wrong, but Maliciously Wrong by Cathy O'Neil
3 New Year's Resolutions for the LGBT Community by Zach Stafford

Quote
Being queer is regarded as shameful by barbarians and by those who live under despotic governments just as philosophy is regarded as shameful by them, because it is apparently not in the interest of such rulers to have great ideas engendered in their subjects, or powerful friendships or passionate love-all of which the state of queerness is particularly apt to produce.
-Plato

Historical Queer Poetry
For the Courtesan Ch'ing Lin by Wu Tsao
On your slender body
Your jade and coral girdle ornaments chime
Like those of a celestial companion
Come from the Green Jade City of Heaven.
One smile from you when we meet,
And I become speechless and forget every word.
For too long you have gathered flowers,
And leaned against the bamboos,
Your green sleeves growing cold,
In your deserted valley:
I can visualize you all alone,
A girl harboring her cryptic thoughts.

You glow like a perfumed lamp
In the gathering shadows.
We play wine games
And recite each other's poems.
Then you sing `Remembering South of the River'
With its heart breaking verses. Then
We paint each other's beautiful eyebrows.
I want to possess you completely -
Your jade body
And your promised heart.
It is Spring.
Vast mists cover the Five Lakes.
My dear, let me buy a red painted boat
And carry you away.

-Translated by Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung

December 26, 2012

Of the Day (12/26/12)

The Amazing Sassy
The Amazing Sassy - R-Rated Films

Link
President George H.W. Bush's Letter of Resignation From the NRA.
-From Snopes.com

Quote
Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet in one, and those commoner natures who pursue either to the exclusion of the other are compelled to stand aside, cities will never have rest from their evils — no, nor the human race, as I believe — and then only will this our State have a possibility of life and behold the light of day.
-Plato, The Republic, Book V

Historical Queer Poem
But Ruth replied to Naomi:
Do not ask me to leave you,
or to turn back from you.

Wherever you go, I shall go,
and wherever you stay, I shall stay.

Your people will be my people
and your God my God.

Wherever you die, I shall die
and there I shall be buried.

May the Lord deal with me
be it ever so severely
if even death separates you and me.
-Adapted from Ruth 1:16-17